period i:
1865 - 1898
In 1865, the Central Pacific Railroad Company began recruiting Chinese workers for the transcontinental railroad. Workers from China were initially paid $27 per month of dangerous labor that included planting explosives, chipping away granite while suspended down a cliff, and laying ties over treacherous terrain. Eventually their pay increased to a meager $30 per month, minus the cost of food and board. In comparison, Irish workers were paid $35 per month, board provided. By the summer of 1868, two-thirds of the 4,000 transcontinental railroad workers were Chinese. The Chinese teams were organized into groups of twenty under one white foreman, however as construction became progressively difficult, the "gangs" increased in size.
Workers lived in canvas camps similar to the one pictured above, located alongside the tracks. In each gang, a cook would purchase dried food from Chinese districts of Sacramento and San Francisco. As opposed to the Irish diet of beef and potatoes, the Chinese ate vegetables and seafood. They also kept live chicken and pigs for weekend meals. Due to their lifestyle of drinking hot tea instead of water, bathing themselves, and washing their clothes, the Chinese were able to avoid the dysentery that the white crews suffered from.
Prior to building the transcontinental railroad, Chinese immigrants did similar work as miners. However, as the Central Pacific Railroad Company began hiring Chinese workers, almost double the amount of Chinese began immigrating over from China. As shown in the line graph above, the total number of immigrants from China peaked in 1870-1879.
In 1898, China established an important feature of Western Civilization into the empire. A modern postal service was established. Interestingly, half of this article in the New York Journal is about who exactly the emperor of China is and how the Chinese people regard him. He is described as "small and frail looking, with large, dark eyes and an intellectual face."