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The manual labor to build the Central Pacific's roadbed, bridges and tunnels was done primarily by many thousands of emigrant workers from China under the direction of skilled non-Chinese supervisors. The Chinese were commonly referred to at the time as 'Celestials' and China as the 'Celestial Kingdom'.<br/><br/> Labor-saving devices in those days consisted primarily of wheelbarrows, horse or mule pulled carts, and a few railroad pulled gondolas. The construction work involved an immense amount of manual labor.
The First Transcontinental Railroad (known originally as the 'Pacific Railroad' and later as the 'Overland Route') was a 1,907-mile (3,069 km) contiguous railroad line constructed in the United States between 1863 and 1869 west of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to connect the Pacific coast at San Francisco Bay with the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa.<br/><br/> Opened for through traffic on May 10, 1869 with the ceremonial driving of the 'Last Spike' at Promontory Summit, the road established a mechanized transcontinental transportation network that revolutionized the settlement and economy of the American West by bringing these western states and territories firmly and profitably into the Union and making goods and transportation much quicker, cheaper, and more flexible from coast to coast.
San Francisco's Chinatown was the port of entry for early Hoisanese and Zhongshanese Chinese immigrants from the Guangdong province of southern China from the 1850s to the 1900s. The area was the one geographical region deeded by the city government and private property owners which allowed Chinese persons to inherit and inhabit dwellings within the city.<br/><br/> The majority of these Chinese shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and hired workers in San Francisco Chinatown were predominantly Hoisanese and male. Many Chinese found jobs working for large companies seeking a source of labor, most famously as part of the Central Pacific on the Transcontinental Railroad. Other early immigrants worked as mine workers or independent prospectors hoping to strike it rich during the 1849 Gold Rush.
San Francisco's Chinatown was the port of entry for early Hoisanese and Zhongshanese Chinese immigrants from the Guangdong province of southern China from the 1850s to the 1900s. The area was the one geographical region deeded by the city government and private property owners which allowed Chinese persons to inherit and inhabit dwellings within the city.<br/><br/> The majority of these Chinese shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and hired workers in San Francisco Chinatown were predominantly Hoisanese and male. Many Chinese found jobs working for large companies seeking a source of labor, most famously as part of the Central Pacific on the Transcontinental Railroad. Other early immigrants worked as mine workers or independent prospectors hoping to strike it rich during the 1849 Gold Rush.
The Tangshan earthquake, also known as the Great Tangshan earthquake, was a natural disaster that occurred on July 28, 1976. It is believed to be the largest earthquake of the 20th century by death toll. The epicenter of the earthquake was near Tangshan in Hebei, People's Republic of China, an industrial city with approximately one million inhabitants.<br/><br/> The number of deaths initially reported by the Chinese government was 655,000, but this number has since been stated to be around 240,000 to 255,000. Another report indicates that the actual death toll was much higher, at approximately 650,000, and explains that the lower estimates are limited to Tangshan and exclude fatalities in the densely populated surrounding areas.<br/><br/> A further 164,000 people were recorded as being severely injured. The earthquake occurred between a series of political events involving the Communist Party of China, ultimately leading to the expulsion of the ruling Gang of Four by Mao Zedong's chosen successor, Hua Guofeng. In traditional Chinese thought, natural disasters are seen as a precursor of dynastic change.
The Vietnam North-South Railway, runs 1,726 km (1,080 miles) from Hanoi to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) along the Vietnamese coast on a 1-m gauge track. The railway was constructed by French colonists as part of a railway network in Indochina. It was officially inaugurated on October 2, 1936. Nowadays known as the Reunification Express, the railway is renowned as the slowest train service in the world.
John Murray Forbes (1813 – 1898) was born in Bordeaux, France. His parents were Ralph Bennett Forbes and wife Margaret Perkins, niece of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, founder of a Boston Brahmin family merchant dynasty involved in the China trade. The Forbes family settled in Milton, Massachusetts, where his father was an energetic but unsuccessful businessman who died when John was only six.<br/><br/> Forbes attended school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, then at Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1823-28. He was one of three brothers sent by their uncle to Canton (now Guangzhou), China, and achieved some financial success during a short time spent trading in Canton. However, unlike his brother Robert Bennet Forbes who devoted himself to the China trade, Forbes returned to Boston and became an early railroad investor and landowner.<br/><br/> Although Forbes' is best known as a railroad magnate, much of his fortune was based in the opium trade to China. It is said that his opium millions financed the career of author Ralph Waldo Emerson, who married Forbes's daughter, and bankrolled the establishment of the Bell Telephone Company, whose first president was William Hathaway Forbes, father of Ruth Forbes Paine.
John Murray Forbes (1813 – 1898) was born in Bordeaux, France. His parents were Ralph Bennett Forbes and wife Margaret Perkins, niece of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, founder of a Boston Brahmin family merchant dynasty involved in the China trade. The Forbes family settled in Milton, Massachusetts, where his father was an energetic but unsuccessful businessman who died when John was only six.<br/><br/> Forbes attended school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, then at Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1823-28. He was one of three brothers sent by their uncle to Canton (now Guangzhou), China, and achieved some financial success during a short time spent trading in Canton. However, unlike his brother Robert Bennet Forbes who devoted himself to the China trade, Forbes returned to Boston and became an early railroad investor and landowner.<br/><br/> Although Forbes' is best known as a railroad magnate, much of his fortune was based in the opium trade to China. It is said that his opium millions financed the career of author Ralph Waldo Emerson, who married Forbes's daughter, and bankrolled the establishment of the Bell Telephone Company, whose first president was William Hathaway Forbes, father of Ruth Forbes Paine.
The first railways in Vietnam were established in the 1880s; these included a tram running between the ports of Saigon and Cholon, and a regional rail line connecting Saigon with Mỹ Tho in the Mekong Delta. Railway construction flourished soon afterwards, during the administration of Paul Doumer as Governor-General of French Indochina from 1897 to 1902.