Intro — arriving north through south Midtown

For the next few miles up one street, the Reno most visitors never see — eyes on the road; let this ride shotgun.

Key facts

The whole tour runs north up Virginia Street, Reno's historic spine — Midtown, then downtown under the Arch, then out to the university and Rancho San Rafael.
The through line is Reno's Asian history: the Chinese who built the railroads, the Chinatown the city destroyed in 1908, and the living Asian Reno — hot pot, the API Night Market, a Chinese pagoda.
This is a drive-and-stroll: you drive most of it, but park downtown for a short walk through the heart of the story.

Narration transcript

Welcome — and before we roll, one thing about how this tour works. If you're the one driving, keep your eyes on the road and let the voice do the work; the screen is for your passenger, or for when we park. And we will park — this is a drive with a walk in the middle.

Here's where we're headed. For the next few miles we go straight up Virginia Street, the oldest through-line in Reno, from Midtown into downtown and out the other side. But we're not here for the neon and the casinos. We're here for the Reno almost no visitor is shown: the city that Chinese hands built. Chinese workers cut the railroad through the mountains behind us and settled by the river ahead. They built a Chinatown down there — and in 1908 the city tore it down and drove its people into the snow. We'll stand where that happened. We'll also eat where Asian Reno eats today, because this story isn't only in the past.

So — history, hot pot, and the river. Let's start with dinner. Drive on.