Minecraft Tours
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we were required to stop in-person tours. Still wanting the ability to give tours, we turned to the digital world and built Chinatown in its very own Minecraft world. After making the first world, we created more for different holidays, such as Lunar New Year and Halloween. 

Building the World

Chinatown was rebuilt by using Google maps and Google images to view the streets when they are not as crowded. They also used photos to recreate the murals and computer science to program the non-playable characters(NPCs). This process took several months and also required the help of alum, who helped to design, scale, and build the world. 

Giving the Tours

To give the tours, we would invite people to the world and "walk through" Chinatown with us. But we ran into issues of people not knowing how to navigate the game, so we resorted to doing tours by sharing our screens over Zoom and adding more visual aids to help people understand what is going on while we are giving this virtual tour. 

Impacts

The Minecraft tours gave the ability to anyone to be able to see and experience Chinatown. People from all over the country no longer needed to travel to San Francisco and could see it with just internet connection. It also gave us the ability to continue to share what Chinatown means to us without being in-person. 

Quote From a Guide

"We started the Minecraft tours because of the pandemic. It was a way for us to continue sharing the struggles and triumphs of Chinatown while we were all quarantined in our homes. This replica of Chinatown was a huge project that took many hours of hard work and the creativity of our incredibly talented builders from the CCDC youth team. Thanks to their efforts, CATs was able to remain active during a time of uncertainty. While we no longer use the Minecraft world today, it stands as a meaningful reminder of our resilience and innovation during the pandemic."
 - Tracy Law, 2025

Explore Minecraft Chinatown

Standard World

Halloween World