Wishing Well

The Seven Star Cavern Wishing Well
of Chinatown Central Plaza

Our Hope: Restore to Original Charm and Honor

Over Time
1939 to January 2022

Story of the Seven Star Cavern Wishing Well

The Wishing Well is called the Seven Star Caverns. It’s a scale model of a real mountain in Canton, where the locals believe Immortals live. Professor Henry Liu built the structure by modeling handfuls of concrete over rebar in 1939. It’s been said that throwing a coin with your back turned will grant a hidden wish that only your soul can see.
(Underneath the wishing well, there remains a giant cauldron that was used to hold melted iron for the railway, too heavy to remove.) Once upon a time, there was a Willow Tree behind the Wishing Well. The tree was planted by movie star, Anna May Wong, for Paramount Pictures in honor of the community.
Her name means "frosted yellow willow."

The Wishing Well is often vandalized, the most shocking in the Pandemic Summer of 2020.
The Central Plaza community hopes to restore the Wishing Well to beauty and honor,
including a protective gateway to close at night.

More from a 2011 UCLA Thesis in Art History by Ms. C. Bollier: "The Seven Star Caverns Wishing Pool is the representation of an actual scenic location in the Guangdong province in China and was created by artist Liu Hong Kay in 1939 upon the completion of the New Chinatown. It was supposed to not only be appreciated by the Chinese immigrants and their families but also by the tourists who could appreciate the Chinese culture on a foreign land.

The Seven Star Crags Park in China is “composed of five lakes, six hills, seven crags and eight caves”.
It takes its name from the fact that there are seven limestone crags in the park “naturally arranged in the same formation as the seven stars of the Big Dipper constellation.” Many legends exist about how the site came to be. Some people believe that the peaks came from stars that fell from the sky. Others think that they are “seven miraculous stones left by Nu Wa when she mended the Sky. Nu Wa is a Chinese goddess of creation who is also known for “patching up the falling heavens” with rocks. " -- C. Bollier
Someone remembers there was a blue Kwan Yin guarded by Blue Lions under an Arch.

Standing at the Chinatown Seven Star Cavern Wishing Well,
one can sense the echo of millions and millions of hopes and wishes over 83 years....

1940. Counting Wishing Well Coins by the Association for the upkeep of the Plaza.

Paramount Movie Star, Anna May Wong, Planting the Willow Tree

2002 Scouting for Disney's "Freaky Friday"

2011 - 2015

The addition of the Water Fall in 2004 caused the gradual erosion of the original texture, and decay of the iron rebar inside. The slippery surface also created risk during decorating or collecting coins and mosquitos began to be an issue. The Water Fall was removed in 2016.