Thousands of Chinese workers helped build it, but their faces were left out of photos from that historic day. that the other workers expected so they can be treated respectfully due to the hard work they put in but that did not go as well. Among those were the Chinese who built the railroads linking the east and west coasts. From 1864 to 1869, somewhere between ten thousand and twenty thousand of these immigrants were responsible for a major part of the western construction of … 1950s. Chinese immigrants help build the Pacific railroad. Chinese Transcontinental Railroad Workers. Chinese workers were paid $1.00 a day, and from this $1.00, they had to pay for their food and gear. In fact, while the white workers were given their monthly salary (about $35) and food and shelter, the Chinese immigrants received only their salary (about $26-35). The railroad workers blasted and scraped their way through the Sierra Mountains at great risk to their lives. Between 1863 and 1869, as many as 20,000 Chinese workers helped build the treacherous western portion of the railroad, a winding ribbon of track known as the Central Pacific that began in Sacramento. The situation was so severe that the imperial Chinese government even sent investigators to Cuba in 1873 to look into a large number of suicides by Chinese laborers in Cuba, as well as allegations of abuse and breach of contract by plantation owners. Jake Lee, Laborers Working on Central Pacific Railroad, ca. Workers of the Central Pacific Railroad: Chinese peasants from the Canton Province began arriving on California's shores in 1850, pushed by poverty … Etiquette at formal banquets is important for visitors to understand before visiting China. In the mid-nineteenth century, large numbers of Chinese men immigrated to the United States in search of better futures for themselves and the families they left behind. Image from the Chinese Historical Society of America. Although Western fast food has made major inroads in the cities there is still a great appreciation of Chinese food as one of the finer pleasures in life. [10] Cookie: Chinese: Refers to fortune cookies. Chop Stick: Chinese: Refers to the utensils commonly used to eat Chinese food: Chork: Chinese: chinese dork: Chunk: Chinese: A variant of "chink." They had to provide their own food and tents. Chinese railroad workers were divided into gangs of about 12 to 20 each. As well as being paid less, Chinese workers were given the most dangerous tasks, such as handling the explosive nitroglycerin used to break up solid rock. White workers were paid $1.50 to $2.50 per day and did not have to pay for provisions. In fact, the Chinese were treated awfully in British Columbia which is odd because without the Chinese, there would not be a railway so for many reasons the Canadian engineers treat the hard Chinese workers like nothing. In many cases, these Chinese “coolies” were treated just as the enslaved Africans were. Delicious Chinese food Culture A fine Chinese meal is a carefully balanced mixtures of flavors, textures, colors and food types. America's first transcontinental railroad was completed with a golden spike 145 years ago. Used in the place of chink when speaking to a fat chinese person, or a "chunk." Each group had a cook who not only prepared their meals but was required to have a large boiler of hot water each night so that when the workers came off the grade, they could take a hot sponge bath, and change their clothes before the evening meal.