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Birth in China
My name is Fai. I was born in to poverty. My father died before I was born, leaving my mother to care for my six brothers, one sister and me. We left for America when I was a month old. My mother hoped that my brothers could find better work in America and my sis ter would be able to marry a rich man. My mother hoped that I would grow up to be a doctor and make lots of money. She left our home with all of us with her not knowing our futures. -
Angel Island
Where Chinese Immigrants settled It took a month for us to get to Angel Island by ship. Of course
I have no memory of this, I was just a baby but my sister told me about it. She said that my brothers were seprated for her and our mother for health inspection. I went woth my sister and mother because I was a baby. It took hours but eventually my family was reunited and on its way to our new home. -
Living in America
I grew up in San Francisco. I played in the streets with other imigrants children. My mother wanted to send me to school but Chinese were not allowd. Despite that I leraned a lot about American money by going to stores and watching what people did. By the time I was seven I could speak better engilsh than anyone in my family. I helped my sister kearn english and sometimes went with my brothers to the bay to fish. Though we were not rich we were much better off than we were in China. -
Transcontinental Railroad construction
By the time I was seven-teen I was ready to look for work to help support my family. I heard about the railroad construction and wanted to be apart of it. I was good with my hands and the money was good enough. I didn't realize how dangerous it would be. When we had to blast throgh mountains we used a substance called nitroglycerin. Many men lost their lives because of the unstable mixture. I was one of the fortunate ones who's task was just to lay down track. -
The golden spike
I watched as the golden spike was driven into the railroad track and felt poud. It had taken a lot of hard work but the Transcontinental Railroad was finally done. Many men's lives had been lost in the process but now the whole country was connected and I had been a part of making that happen. As I walked away with the crowd that day I knew all the hardships I had faced were overcome. -
Afterward
Fai setteles down in San Francisco and marries another Chinese immigrant. They have seven children. Fai lives until he was 72 two years old.
