We actually have a massive dearth of first hand accounts by the Chinese railway workers themselves. Much of the contemporary articles we have on their experiences were written by non-Chinese observers.

In a related note, a project spearheaded by Stanford University but started by concerned private citizens and individual historians, there has been a strong drive in recent years to collect, catalog, and record the experiences of the Chinese immigrant worker that helped build one of the most historic projects in American history.

It seems appropriate that this project is being sponsored by the school bearing the name of Leland Stanford, who was a big stakeholder in the Central Pacific Railroad for which much of the historic track was built on the labor of Chinese workers. You can get a look at some of the articles being produced by this research effort here.

So what was life for the average Chinese worker during this time?

We don't know exactly what the day consisted of but invariably, work was exhausting when not dangerous and life outside of work offered little reprieve.

The day would begin very early, often before daybreak. Most workers would have likely risen to morning calls in Cantonese, as the majority of workers hailed from the Guangdong region which was near the convenient port of Hong Kong. The Siyi dialects of Cantonese were also prominent.

The Chinese workers hired by the Central Pacific Railroad had a long day ahead of them, regularly working shifts of 10~14 hours to meet the grueling schedules demanded of them by foremans, who were similarly being pressured to maintain insane timetables.

This was all for the sake of competing against a rival company, Union Pacific, which was also endeavoring to build a transcontinental railroad under the auspices of funding and reward by deeds to land and money in the form of government bonds depending on how much track was laid down by the end. In early 1866, Union Pacific was laying a mile of track a day. Meanwhile Central Pacific was struggling to lay down a tenth of a mile during the same period. This engendered the spirit and the demands of a race, the burden of which fell on the backs of the Chinese workers doing the most physically taxing and dangerous work.

During much of the work, Chinese laborers would be living in lean-to camps consisting of tents (which they had to pay their employers for), logs, and what building materials could be had. The longer they stayed in one area, the more permanent the tent towns would become but they were largely temporary shelters necessitated by the requirement that it had to be moved along down the line as progress was made. When moving their encampments, the railway workers often hiked through rough ground for many miles with only what they could carry themselves.

When there were railroad posts or towns that could offer amenities, Chinese workers were often barred from access and forced to stay in their own camp. Much of what they needed, including tools, food, clothing, and other misc goods had to be purchased at a premium.

Incidentally, this often precluded fresh vegetables or fruits which caused a great deal of malnutrition among workers. Their diet consisted mostly of a very simple meal of rice, preserved fish, and mantou bread—or pickled vegetables if they were lucky. The occasional meat was a luxury that few enjoyed. Scavenging was hardly an option when the time and labor of their jobs were so demanding.

The day's work would start early and end late, the low light hours being the most strenuous and dangerous because of the build up of fatigue combined with the inherent increase in danger in doing life-threatening work without proper lighting/guidance, especially when working on heights or on sheer cliff faces.

What needed to be done varied with the terrain but there were consistent two jobs no matter what part of the track they were at. Ground needed to be leveled off before the foundation could be built and track needed to be laid.

Divided largely between these two duties, leveling the ground and making enough space for the tracks to be laid was likely the most dangerous. When facing mountains, cliffs, deep tunnels, and stubborn rock formations, this work often involved using blasting solutions where safety of the Chinese workers and sometimes even foremans (white and Chinese) was often compromised. Many would die both directly from accidents and mishandling of explosives as well as indirectly from structural/environmental hazards that came hand in hand with terrain that required explosives for work.

The massive tunnels that were dug largely with explosives were considered particularly deadly. Many Chinese workers would die to gas explosions, or being sent back into tunnels where explosives that had not detonated yet would then blow up, killing any inside, and the constant danger of tunnel collapse.

After space was made, an embankment would often be raised, consisting of subgrade and sometimes blanketing sand if the subgrade underneath was not stable. This provides the foundation on which the ballast (all those bits of rock you often see underneath railroad tracks) would be built on. After that, wooden beams would be laid down before rolled steel would be bolted down and joined with its neighbors to form the actual rail.

Needless to say, easier said than done. This kind of labor done by hand would have been back breaking and when safety was considered a lower priority than speed, severe injuries and even death were not uncommon. Due to the lack of adequate medical attention, in the case of injury or disease, a worker would often be given what care was possible by the crew he was working in, often consisting of a handful of workers and lead by a headman. These headmans were the ones who would talk to and take orders from foremans.

Other occupational hazards included both communicable diseases and chronic diseases, rockslides & avalanches, heat stroke, and of course, frost bite. Working in the snow and cold, many Chinese workers would lose fingers, toes, and even whole limbs to a lack in ability to cope with the chill. With this, even in their sleep, the lives of the Chinese railway worker were often a struggle to keep their bodies and minds whole.

Once their time was up and they could look forward to leaving the life of a railway worker behind them, Chinese laborers were still shortchanged, as Chinese workers wages were lower than their white peers and any food, tools, and goods they obtained from their employers were docked from pay, while white workers had those provided for them.

This actually lead to labor organization and even strikes by the Chinese workers but they ultimately did not have their demands met and eventually returned to work without earning any concessions. It's possible that the subsequent let up in abusive treatment and increases in pay/living conditions could be attributed in part to the strikes though.

So where can you read about first hand accounts of these workers?

Part of the reason for the big push by historians and Stanford University to document and record the personal histories of Chinese railway workers is that we actually do not have a great deal of Chinese accounts from the time. Diaries and letters are almost non existent.

I would point you at Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present for some accounts.

The Stanford project is still producing recordings of oral histories that have been passed down as well as searching far and wide for more primary accounts by the Chinese workers themselves. Only time will tell how successful those efforts are.

Let me know if you have any more questions. Cheers!