Roles of Chinese in Building the Railroad
By Jennifer Zhang
Ethnic groups from all over the country had come for the California Gold Rush for gold. Gold was found in 1848 and people started to come over to California at 1849. The Chinese was one of the main ethnic groups that came over because of gold. The Chinese re-named it “Gum San” meaning Gold Mountain . The Chinese came as married men and left their families at home. When they found out that lots of the gold was taken, they needed the money to go back home, so they worked for the whites, building the railroad. They were basically ex-miners that needed a job and fast money. Another fact was the whites were in need of people to work for them, so the Chinese became the first early employment in building the railroads. The railroad life was harsh. It was dirty work, but the worst part is the danger in making the railroad. They used iron and other strong metals to build the railroad and metals are not easy to break and definite not light in weight. The Chinese also had the job of filling dump carts and the duty of driving the carts as well as loading them. The mountains were in the way, they had the blowing up the mountains using dynamics and other fireworks. They also have to bend down a lot of actually put the rails on the road. The hours were from sunrise to sunset and through out all of this time, there was a headman in the group that would watch over you. The Chinese worked in gangs of 10-12 people in each group. They weren't really company to each other and all they did was work. After a long day, all they get are twenty to thirty dollars per day. The meals they get were not all that rich in nutrition as well. They get things like dried oysters and dried fish. They also get a small serving of rice to go with it. The water was not the best and was actually contaminated in lots of ways. They were also forced to live in dugouts. Although most of pictures at the time showed mainly the Irish, both the Chinese and the Irish had worked equally hard at completing the railroads. The Chinese made a lot of effort in the building of the railroad and that was one of the biggest transportations at the time. The few big railroads that they have completed include the Transcontinental Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad. Even today, we are still using railroads, but without the creation of railroad, we would have never been able to invent and improve new metros and the Bart.