The California gold discovery happened when the southeastern China was going through difficult times of famine, poverty, and rebellions. Many ship owners offered passage to America as the word of gold spread. In 1849, there were only 54 Chinese people in California. By 1876, there were 116,000.
Chinese people were used to working very hard. They were also very good merchants, cooks, laundry men, and farmers. These types of jobs were very necessary for the miners and the Chinese made good wages providing these services.
Some Chinese would mine for gold, but usually in areas abandoned by white people. As gold became more difficult to find, the prejudices toward Chinese people increased. The white men tried to tax the Chinese miners and kept them from voting and going to school. They had separate camps away from the white people and there became even greater racial hatred against those especially that had prospered from their hard work.
Read about other people associated with the Gold Rush:
Blacks
Indians
James Marshall
People