By Sura Wood, San Francisco Arts Monthly, February 2001
Amateur gumshoes—here’s a chance to hone your detective skills. Just put on your trench coats and thinking caps and head out to the annual Chinese New Year’s Treasure Hunt. Now in its 10th year, this event offers a chance to travel the city’s hidden pathways with a packet full of clues and a mystery to solve. You don’t need an arcane knowledge of old San Francisco, a top-notch sense of direction or map-reading ability—but they wouldn’t hurt.
The Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt has become a tradition with its own lore. “It’s a blast”, says Peter Moore, a “repeat offender” who has participated for the last seven years. “It’s like being in ‘The Lady from Shanghai’, where Orson Wells is chasing Rita Hayworth through Chinatown and the parade is going on. You’re behind the scenes of your own secret adventure.” Adds veteran Anita Monga, programmer for the Castro Theater, who likens the hunt to stepping into 19th-century San Francisco, “The dream team would be a librarian, a film scout, a private investigator and a navigator.”
This year, the treasure hunt, which commences at One market Plaza on Saturday, February 3, at 5 p.m. promises participants about four hours traversing the streets of Chinatown, North Beach, and Telegraph Hill, taking in some routes trod by Mark Twain, Jack Kerouac, Dashiell Hammett and Robert Louis Stevenson. Players are organized into teams of four to nine people- you can put together a group with friends beforehand or be assigned to one on site. Teams are divided into three levels: beginner, regular and master. The goal is to solve a series of puzzles, riddles and visual clues that, once deciphered will lead to a specific location where a __________ is hidden.
One example clue reads, “The famed Italian explorer for whom a slanting avenue is named started his life journey in this town and that’s no baloney (in fact, it’s known for something similar which is much tastier.)” Or this: “Many sailed on the Argo with this Greek fellow (known for his prized yellow fleece) died without receiving proper burial.”
The team that discovers the locations and the tokens in the shortest amount of time wins. Champs receive champagne, certificates and bragging rights. Collaborative teamwork is key, as is the ability to plot strategy. “Each team should have a coordinator,” warns the rule book. “A responsible person who will… ensure that team members don’t become lost or get eaten by dragons.” Living in the city gets more dangerous all the time.
The hunt functions on the honor system and, in a refreshing nod to a pre-technology era, no era, no cell phones or electronic devices are permitted. Nor are cars, taxis or bicycles, but flashlights and telephone book might come in handy.
The Treasure Hunt, which has grown from 150 to 1,200 players, is the brain child of Jayson Wechter, a private investigator who gathers evidence for trial lawyers. His bio says that he has explored “sewers”, subterranean caverns and the White Chapel alleys where Jack the Ripper lurked.”
“I’m not much of a party thrower and this was one party I would give each year, “ says Wechter of the original impetus to organize the hunt. “ I wanted to give people the experience of being detectives for a night. It’s a simultaneous intellectual and aerobic workout, but the race is not necessarily won by the swiftest—the youngest, fittest people have not won. Brainpower is what really counts.”
Wechter, who spends more than 200 hours devising the clues, is a bit of a punster with a love of the past. He was co-founder of the Maltese Falcon Society in the early 1980’s, which set up presentations by crime fiction authors and sleuths. “I have shelves of books on San Francisco history but for the most part, I find these locations by walking around and seeing things that interest me that most people overlook,” he explains. “The area is rich with them. This is just an urban nature walk disguised as a treasure hunt.”