10. First Pacific Crossing (1881)

As a gum shan haak, or “traveler to the Golden Mountains,” Dong Hin would have had to raise the $25 to $60 required to pay for the 7,000 mile journey from Hong Kong to San Francisco. This was not an insubstantial amount of money as it was often more than an entire family’s annual income. Dong Hin may have saved money. However, given his young age, he more likely may have borrowed money from his family or money-lending associations known as hui. His family in China would be responsible for repaying the debt to the hui in the event Dong Hin was unable to do so.

Alternatively, by the late 1870’s, Chinese merchants began to sell “credit tickets.” Emigrants who used the credit tickets agreed to repay the cost of the ticket with interest after securing employment in the United States. With the increasing volume of emigrants traveling from China, businesses known as gum shan chong, or “Golden Mountain Firm(s)” began to appear as well. These companies aided the immigrants by taking care of the necessary paperwork and booking the passage. Here is an exerpt from a credit ticket from 1850:

"... From the time of leaving Shanghae, the expenses of provisions and vessel are all to be defrayed by the head of the Tseang Sing Hong. On arrival, it is expected that the foreign merchant will search out and recommend employment for the said labourers, and the money he advances on their account, shall be returned when the employment becomes settled. The one hundred and twenty-five dollars passage money, as agreed by us, are to be paid to the said head of the said Hong, who will make arrangments with the employers of the coolies, that a moiety of their wages shall be deducted monthly until the debt is absorbed, after which they will receive their wages in full every month..."

Today a trip to Hong Kong from San Francisco would take about 12 hours by plane. You might enjoy some airplane food, watch a couple of movies, and sleep a bit. In the late 1800’s the trip was substantially different. Sailing ships and steamers made the trans-Pacific crossing in anywhere from three weeks to two months. Conditions in steerage were often miserable and crowded. The “unusual” Anglo food provided by the ship was often of the poorest quality and unpalatable by Chinese sensibilities. Therefore, the emigrants often brought their own provisions and cooking utensils. Many emigrants had to fight off seasickness as well as loneliness during the long and trying passage to San Francisco.

(1a-c) During the voyage, emmigrants endured poor and overcrowded conditions (adapted from The Chinese American Album).

It was under these conditions in 1881 at fourteen years of age that Dong Hin boarded the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's steam-fitted schooner the "City of Peking" bound for San Francisco and the “Gold Mountain.”(2) The "City of Peking" was built in 1873 and was the first iron-hulled, propeller-driven steamer built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company (from the APL website).

Links
The Chinese American Album by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler
"On Gold Mountain" exhibition
Chinese San Francisco, 1850-1943 by Yong Chen