In the 1850s, Chinese pioneers, mainly from villages in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong, began immigrating in large numbers to San Francisco, initially drawn by the California Gold Rush and the building of the first transcontinental railroad, and settling in Chinatown for refuge from the hostilities in the West. The main dialect spoken in Chinatown then was Hoisan-wa (aka Hoisanese; Toisanese in Cantonese and Taishanese in Mandarin), native to the emigrants from Hoisan (aka Toisan in Cantonese and Taishan in Mandarin), Sze Yup, in the Pearl River Delta.
Neighborhood
Two blocks east of here [Historical Marker] once stood a Chinese community of almost 2,000 people. They came to Nevada during the mining days and did much of the hard work that helped establish the State. This honors the Chinese pioneers who played a major role in Nevada’s early history. Nevada Centennial Marker No.26 1864 – 1964
HMdb.org The Historical Marker Database