Vancouver's Chinatown is the largest in Canada and the second largest in North America, only San Francisco's Chinatown is larger. Chinese immigrants first came to Vancouver to work on roads and railroads. Already in 1874, main roads were being constructed with Chinese labor. Immigration of Chinese was restricted and regulated since 1885, when an act imposed a 50$ head tax on Chinese immigrants. The large Chinese population in Vancouver (350 out of 2000 at the turn of the 19th century) was often subject to racist attacks, the earliest large white mobs attacks were reported in 1887. In 1923 a new immigration act disallowed Chinese immigrants, and it would take another 44 years before they were able to immigrate to Canada on the same basis as other immigrants.
