The Chinese gold mining life was very similar to all life in the American West—rough and lawless. An English-Chinese phrase book, published in San Francisco, reflected their experience through its selection of what a Chinese prospector needed to be able to say in English: He assaulted me without provocation.
He claimed my mine…
He tries to extort money from me.
He falsely accused me of stealing his watch.
He was choked to death with a lasso, by a robber. (Chang 41)

During the early 1850s, some 85 percent of the Chinese in California were engaged in placer mining (Chang 38). The photo shows Chinese miners panning for gold in California. During the gold rush, thousands of first -wave Chinese immigrants arrived to seek their fortune in Gum Shan, or “Gold Mountain.” (Hulton Archive). (Chang, photo inserted between pages 80 and 81)