| In recent years, many people have moved to North America from China, |
| but many people do not know that Chinese people |
| have a long history in Canada and the United States. |
| During the nineteenth century, both Canada and the United States |
| were rapidly expanding to the west, toward the Pacific Ocean. |
| In those days, there were of course no cars or airplanes to allow people and goods to move across the land. |
| Instead, the best method of long-distance transportation was the railroad. |
| Railway trains could move quickly across the countryside. |
| However, there was one problem: |
| before the railway trains could run, |
| railroads had to be built across very long distances. |
| To build the railroads was a very big job. |
| Many men would be needed because the distance was so long and the land was so difficult, |
| with many mountains and rivers to be crossed. |
| For the men who owned the railroad companies, |
| it would have been too expensive to hire Canadian or American men to build the railroads |
| because those workers would only work for high wages. |
| The railroad owners decided to get workers from overseas. |
| Many Chinese men were willing to work for low wages because they were very poor. |
| These men would work very hard and send much of the money back to their relatives in China. |
| Thousands of Chinese men were brought to North America to work on the railroads. |
| They did good work, but their employers treated them badly. |
| The work day was very long, and working conditions were very unsafe. |
| Many Chinese men died in accidents while constructing the railroads. |
| Some Chinese women also came to North America, |
| but there were many more men than women. |
| After the railroads were completed, by about the year 1900, |
| very few Chinese people were allowed to come to North America. |
| Most people in Canada and the United States were not familiar with Chinese people |
| and did not want strangers to come to their countries. |
| Any Chinese person who came to North America had to pay an expensive tax. |
| This made it difficult for Chinese men to bring their wives and families to join them in North America. |
| Later, the governments of Canada and the United States made Chinese immigration illegal. |
| Eventually, the people of Canada and the United States realized that their laws had been unfair. |
| They changed the rules so that Chinese people |
| could immigrate in the same way that people from other countries could do so. |
| In recent decades, many Chinese people have moved to North America, |
| and have formed a very lively and successful community. |
| Many cities, such as Toronto, Vancouver, |
| San Francisco, and New York, have been enriched by Chinese culture. |
| Chinese people are now very prominent in North America, just as they were many years ago. |
