num_pages: 208
description: Saltwater City pays tribute to those who went through the hard times, to those who swallowed their pride, to those who were powerless and humiliated, but who still carried on. They all had faith that things would be better for future generations. They have been proven correct.Canada’s first Chinese arrived in British Columbia in 1858 from California. Almost all mee—merchants, peasants, and laborers — and almost all from eight rural counties in the Pearl River delta in what is now Guangdong province — they came in search of gold and better fortune, escaping the rebellions, flood and drought of their homeland.By 1863 over 4,000 Chinese lived in B.C., filling jobs shunned by miners, road builders, teamsters, laundry men, restaurateurs, domestic servants and cannery workers. Between 1881 and 1885, thousands more arrived, most imported to build the transcontinental railway. They were to create, in Vancouver, Canada’s largest and most dynamic Chinese Community, known to its original inhabitants as Saltwater City.
language: English
title: Saltwater City: Story of Vancouver's Chinese Community
titlecomplete: Saltwater City: Story of Vancouver's Chinese Community
genres: Canada, History, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 32
awards: awardedAt: 599644800000
name: Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize
publisher: Douglas & McIntyre