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Immigration Period
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Moving to America
Hi, my name is AnQi Zhao. I moved to America from GuangDong, China. My push factors were due to the extreme weather in China and high population in China. My pull factor was oppurtunity in America. There are many droughts in China, so the crops cannot grow very well, and there are to many people, so it is hard to find jobs. My husband and I decided to come in 1860. -
Medical Checks
The next day, my husband and I went through checks at Ellis Island. It was hard because the checker spoke a different language, and even if he spoke English, we hardly knew any English. I went through many tests and finally passed. I was rather healthy, and so was my husband. -
Finding a Job
It was hard to find jobs, because there were so many people there, but I found a job plucking feathers off chickens. The owners were cruel, and they would not give us enough pay. My husband got a job there as well. Even though it was difficult, it was better than no job. -
Gold in the West
Soon, we heard about the gold in the west, and we wanted to move there to become more wealthy. It sounded like a great oppurtunity and we could get more money than we earned with a job. We packed up our things and set off to the west. We brought some money with us, but it was not enough. -
Railroad Building
Because my husband found a job as a railroad builder, we moved slower on our journey. Even though we wanted to get there quicker, we needed money for the journey. We finally got there, but stopped a lot on the way to see the areas we passed. It was like a vacation for us. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
My husband headed to the mines when we arrived, and it was hard work, but we earned some gold. But in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, and we couldn't afford to pay the taxes to get in the mines. -
Moving Back to China
We saw how unfair America actually was, and did not think it was worth it to stay in America. So because the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, we decided to move back to China. America was not the right place for us, and we missed our relatives and friends back home.
