While I'm not personally a huge fan of Iris Chang (as she does write from a very pro-Chinese point of view, often at the expense of others, ex. Caucasians, Japanese) I do think her book "Chinese in America" gives a good overview of what life was like for many Chinese immigrants.

California is unique among US States in that its name is not based off the Anglo pronounciation of the word (New York as "Nu Ye" and Canada as "kanada"), it is called "Jin San," or Gold Mountain. This was because of the California Gold Rush, where many Chinese immigrants from Guangdong immigrated to look for gold. As with most gold rushers, some made it big, most made just a little bit. Of course, when they had been envisioning a sort of Garden of Eden that was made out of gold, and when they instead landed at a ramshackle set of settlements flooded by immigrants and were heavily discriminated against, there was obviously some disappointment.