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For most of 20th Century, Hacienda Heights was primarily home to Anglo Angelenos. In the 1980s, Latinos, many from the Eastside and Midtown, began moving to the hilly suburb. By 1990, the Latino population was dominant and, up till the early 1990s, Hacienda Heights was regularly referred to as “The Chicano Beverly Hills.”

In the 1990s and the decades since the area has seen another dramatic demographic shift with the arrival of many Taiwanese-Americans. Although there were Asian-Americans in the San Gabriel Valley for decades, real growth began in the 1970s, after realtor Frederic Hsieh began promoting Monterey Park as the “Chinese Beverly Hills” in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In the years that followed, many Chinese businesspeople and their families moved to the area. By the mid-1980s, people were commonly referring to Monterey Park as Little Taipei. Even as more and more Chinesemainlanders and Hoa arrived Cantonese became the dominant language as many wealthy and by-then-established Taiwanese-American families began to relocate to classy communities like Arcadia and San Marino, nearby communities like Temple City, and less-developed communities like Walnut, Rowland Heights and Hacienda Heights, communities whose rolling hills practically begged to be covered by big, new-money/no-class McMansions.

Nowadays the community is mostly Latino and Asian-American – 46% Latino (mostly Mexican) of any race, 37% Asian (mostly Taiwanese and Chinese) and 5% non-Latino white.

One of (if not the) main draws of Hacienda Heights is the food. Every year the community and Rowland Heights get together to host Taste of the Heights at Pathfinder Park. On the day of our visit we arrived in the morning and stopped at Four Sea Restaurant for a delicious breakfast of fried onion cake with egg, a rice roll with pickled vegetables and veggie pork, fried leek pockets and steaming hot soy milk.Other well-represented cuisines include Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Mexican and are represented by Akasaka Restaurant, Boiling Point (smelly Tofu!), Boston Cafe, California Stonegrill, Casa Blanca Mexican Restaurant, Casa De Tacos, Casa Jimenez Mexican, China Gate, China Mandarin Restaurant, China Star, China Wok Fast Food, Cindy’s Kitchen, Cindy Liu Deli, Da Bok Tofu Restaurant, Daikokuya, Deerfield Restaurant, Donut King, Dumpling Master Restaurant, E Mei Shan Chinese Restaurant, Earthen Restaurants, El Curtido, Flame Broiler, Foo Foo Tei, Fruity Deli-cious, Garden Fresh Vegetarian Food, Hacienda Grill, Hacienda Village Meat & Italian Deli, In-N-Out Burger, JJ Bakery, John’s Kitchen, Katana Sushi and Ramen, Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot & Grill, Los Frijolitos, Malan Han Noodle, Montanos, Nini Bakery, Oh! Crab, Osaka Seafood Buffet, Ostioneria Colima, Pak Kai Market / Deli, Pauline’s Chinese Kitchen, Run Taco Run, Senor Baja, Seoul Korea Restaurant, Shin Sen Gumi, Sokaku Sushi, Soo Ra Sang Korean BBQ, Sushi Umi, Taipan Kitchen, Taipei Ning Gi Hot Pot Restaurant, Taiwan Deli, Tamaya, Tasty Noodle House, Tiramisu Cafe, Tokyo Lobby Restaurant, Tony’s Pizza & Pasta, Whimsical Frozen Yogurt Gelato, World’s Best Pizza and Yunnan Garden.

Oh, and although I normally forgo mentioning international restaurant chains, Hacienda Heights is home to the first (only?) Feng Shui McDonald’s.

Rivaling or perhaps even surpassing Hacienda Heights’ eateries as a draw is the largest Buddhist temple complex in the Western Hemishpere, Hsi Lai Temple, which opened in 1988. It was founded by Venerable Master Hsing Yun, the 48th Patriarch of the Lin-chi line of Ch’an. He is also the founder of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order whose headquarters are in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The large Temple includes many sites of interest including the Bodhisattva Hall, the Arhat Garden, the Avalokitesvara Garden, the large Founder’s Statue, the Main Shrine, the Requiem Pagoda, Meditation Hall, Translation and Publishing Center, Fo Guang Yuan Hsi Lai Art Gallery (where they sell Buddhist DVDs and CDs), the Tea Room and the Dining Hall.

Although not especially hungry we decided to eat again in keeping with Taiwanese customs. Since Humanistic Buddhists believe that food and drink should be consumed as vehicles for nourishment and nothing else, it’s pretty bland. In fact, garlic and spices are seen as obstacles to achieving a pure and clear mind. It definitely was decently prepared and could even possibly serves as a culinary bridge to the East for bland-food-favoring Middlewesterners.

Events Hsi Lai hosts many of the events and observances in Hacienda Heights, including the Buddhist Sangha, Buddha’s Birthday and Dharma Day. The St. John Vianney Church hosts the annual Early California Days. There’s also and annual Fourth of July celebration. Schabarum Park (which mostly lies in Rowland Heights) hosts annual summer concerts.

The largest landfill in the United States, the 2.8 km2 Puente Hills Landfill, is partially located within Hacienda Heights. It was featured in the Penn and Teller series Bullshit! as part of their campaign against recycling. It also appeared in an episode of MegaStructures called “Garbage Mountain.” Up to 13,200 tons of refuse are in by up to 1,600 trucks daily. The landfill rises up to a height of 150 meters but will close in 2013.

The biogas generated by the trash’s decomposition produces enough electricity to service approximately 70,000 area homes and is sold to Southern California Edison. The Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Preservation Authority is a Joint Powers Authority with a Board of Directors consisting of the City of Whittier, County of Los Angeles, Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, and the Hacienda Heights Improvement Association. The Habitat Authority is acquires, restores and mangoes open space in the Puente Hills, with the primary purpose of protecting biological diversity. They also offer hikes and educational programs.Other Parks of Hacienda Heights include the smaller Los Robles Park, Hacienda La Puente Park,Manzanita Park, Thomas Burton Park, County Wood Park, Pepperbrook Park and a small corner of Arroyo Pescadero Park.

Turnbull Canyon, which passes through North Whittier and connects Hacienda Heights to Whittier, is a source of many local legends involving Satanic Cults, extraterrestrials, the KKK, a witch house, a hanging tree, murderous psychopaths, ghosts, an abandoned insane asylum and more. Some of the kookier stories involve X-Files style government cover-ups. It was supposedly (I can find no credible source) known to the Tongva as Hutukng-na, meaning “dark place.” Not surprisingly, its a popular destination for thrill-seeking teenagers out for kicks and killers looking for a dumpsite.

Bixby Plaza
Hacienda CenterPlaza Stimson

There are several shopping centers in Hacienda Heights like Gale Square Shopping Center, Plaza Stimson and Bixby Plaza but, to be honest, they’re not the sorts of malls I see people going to just to hang out (well, not young ones. I remember going to a red egg party at Saka Seafood Buffet at the Hacienda Center years ago.

Revisiting it we popped into the local 99 Ranch Market to find that another observance was underway, theShanghai Food Festival. There were numerous free samples being given out including lotion, golden kiwis, red bean ice cream, seaweed salad, asian pears and more.

In addition to the TV episodes filmed at the landfill, Hacienda Heights was featured in an eponymous English language novela. It’s also the birthplace of The Spectacular Spider-man‘s Joshua Keaton andCaprice Bourret of The Surreal Life. It’s also the birthplace of Brooklyn-based filmmaker/musician/photographer Tiffany Huang. Oh yeah, incontinence spokesperson Stacy Ann “Fergie” Ferguson is from there. Also, in music-related news, it’s home to the Sound of China Guzheng Music Promotion Center.Well, being a quiet, largely residential Taiwanese-American neighborhood, the nightlife options are few… with more tea houses than bars. The two bars, City Lights Cocktail Lounge and Sunset Room, compete against Boba Tea Hut, Guppy Tea House, Quickly, Tea Station and Tenju Tea House for thirsty night owls. There are, however, a higher than average number of liquor stores suggesting that not everyone is a boba-teetotaler. Other nightlife options are Joy Karaoke and Empire Hookah Lounge.

Until next time when we head to Huntington Beach!

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To vote for any communities you’d like to see covered in California Fool’s Gold, name them in the comments. If you’d like a bit of inspiration, there are primers for:

• Imperial County
• Kern County
• Los Angeles County
  • Angeles Forest
  • the Antelope Valley
  • the Channel Islands
  • Downtown
  • the Eastside
  • the Harbor
  • Hollywood
  • Mideast Los Angeles
  • Midtown
  • Northeast Los Angeles
  • Northwest Los Angeles
  • the Pomona Valley
  • the San Fernando Valley
  • the San Gabriel Valley
  • the Santa Monica Mountains
  • the South Bay
  • South Los Angeles’s Eastside
  • South Los Angeles’s Westside
  • Southeast Los Angeles
  • the Verdugos
  • the Westside
• Orange County
  • North County
  • South County
• Riverside County
• San Bernardino County
• San Diego County
  • San Diego City
• San Luis Obispo County
• Santa Barbara County
• Ventura County

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Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, essayist, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking paid writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities. He is not interested in generating advertorials, cranking out clickbait, or laboring away in a listicle mill “for exposure.”

Brightwell has written for Angels Walk LA, Amoeblog, Boom: A Journal of California, diaCRITICS, Hidden Los Angeles, and KCET Departures. His art has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft Contemporary, Form Follows Function, Los Angeles County Store, the book Sidewalking, Skid Row Housing Trust, and 1650 Gallery. Brightwell has been featured as subject in The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, LAist, CurbedLA, Eastsider LA, Boing Boing, Los Angeles, I’m Yours, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW‘s Which Way, LA?, at Emerson College, and the University of Southern California.

Brightwell is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Ameba, Duolingo, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Mubi, and Twitter.

Art prints of Brightwell’s maps are available from Saatchi Art and 1650 Gallery. Other merchandise is available on Tee Public.

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