The sun was starting to shine. For Mi (?), it was the start to another day of disappointing harvests. The Taishan hills, although picturesque, were almost impossible to cultivate; the drought in 1852 and the Hakka threatening to take his farm land did not help alleviate his problem. Looking up at the gloomy sun, Mi started to walk to his plantation fields.  Farming work did not tire him, but the results started to wear him down slowly. A year ago, a Red Turban triad group led by a Hakka had burned down part of his humble field.  Following that incident, Mi had worked extra hard to repair the damage.
Mi tried to look deep into the calm sun, wondering if it was trying to tell him something. But the dim sun was silent, and so was he. As he started to farm at a mellow constant pace, his head started to race with thoughts. Mi wanted to be rich, and he wasn’t close to giving up this goal. His friend, Lee, had gone to the Gold Mountain in California and now his family in Taishan was receiving some money from the Jinshanzhuang(Hong Kong Banks).
The sun now shined brightly. His head glistened with sweat as he walked along the farm fields.  Mi remembered Lee’s note to his family a month ago. Lee said he was happy working in America and that the merchant who had convinced him to go to America was correct;  America was indeed a land filled with gold. Thinking of the meager amount of money sent to Lee’s family, Mi had a feeling Lee was masking his genuine feelings about America. The meager money was enough for Lee’s family but not enough to bring Lee back; therefore, Lee continued to work overseas.
Mi wondered how much money he would earn if he went overseas. He could probably support his family better; No matter how hard he worked here, the stubborn land only rewarded him partially. Sweat dripping down his eyes, Mi squinted and looked deep into the shining sun; the golden sun reminded him of gold.
His friend Lee had said, “When I come back, I will have gold shinier and larger than the sun!”
He reached his hand out towards the sun and tried to grasp it, but the golden sun was too far away from Taishan. He wanted the gold to be close to him. He wanted gold he could touch with his hands.  America had that gold he wanted. As the sun set, Mi started to walk back towards to his house.
A month later, Mi arrived in Hong Kong where the Pacific Mail Steamship Company was located. After the British had taken over Hong Kong at the end of the First Opium War, shipping companies were established. Immigrants like Mi went to Hong Kong to buy ship tickets to travel to America. When Mi arrived in Hong Kong, Mi was shocked to see some white people. They looked and acted differently. In Hong Kong, Mi was startled, curious, and whimsical.  Mi rarely got nervous, but he started to get anxious when he thought about how different America would be from Taishan.
“Would you like to buy premier, first, second or third class ticket? “
“Third class please,” said Mi with a huge accent. The third class ticket cost him 50 yuan. All Mi brought was 300 Yuan, a nice big kitchen bowl, some clothes, and a tent.
The journey was horrendous. In third class, the immigrants lived like dogs. The immigrants were huddled together in one large room. Privacy was impossible and it smelled horrible. 95% of the immigrants who were in third class were Chinese. The steam ship rocked and made everyone feel sick. However, Mi felt sicker in his mind then his stomach. He could not forget the teary eyes of his wife as she bid him good bye. He tried to assuage her, saying that she would soon become a wealthy jinshanpo and baby Mi would finally become a nice plump boy.  His wife did not want Mi to feel sad for leaving so she tried to feign a smile. However, her eyes were so watery the melancholy smile failed to feint her true feeling.
Mi realized if immigrating to America did not bring wealth, his family would starve. Sighing, Mi sat in the cramped ship and meditated with quiet grace. Millions of thoughts ran through his mind as he planned his life in America. Mi pictured himself picking up tons of gold from golden mountains and golden rivers while the golden sun shined on him, making everything that much brighter and dreamier. A month later, he and the other third class immigrants had suffered enough and were delighted when the ship finally arrived to the land of the 49ers.
As Mi excitedly ran out of the ship, he scanned the surroundings; San Francisco did not have the golden mountains he had imagined and he did not see any golden rivers yet; Lee had described San Francisco as a land filled with gold. However, Mi never lost faith in the Gold Country (Sierra Nevada).  He felt certain Sierra Nevada kept its gilded promise of gold. Mi was excited to start panning and looking for gold. Mi knew Taishan would always be his true home. Taishan was a place worth leaving but also a place worth returning to. But for now, he needed to go to the American River in Sierra Nevada.
Everyone at the mining camp looked worn-out. Although the camp Mi went to was Chinese gold miner’s camp, increasing competition resulted in some white people infiltrating the camp.  It felt like there were more white people in the camp because the white people were usually the loud, noticeable, and often obnoxious ones.
The next few days, Mi had already mined some gold. It was not much gold, but Mi was determined to find more. Mi had realized Lee had indeed lied to his family about the working conditions.  He mined from 12 hours a day; sweating more than when he had been farming in Taishan. As Mi was panning one day, a fellow Chinese man crouched next to him and started chatting with him. The man wore a ragged shirt almost completely brown from the dirt. The man’s face was also covered with the dirt, which enhanced the frailty of his aged face.
“You look like a fresh young lad. What is your name?” the stranger said in Chinese.
“My name is Mi. I arrived recently. What is your name?” said Mi in Chinese.
“I am Sun. How are you doing? I am so homesick.”
“It’s ok. Don’t worry too much about your family. I’m sure they are doing fine.”
As they worked next to each other throughout the day, they quickly became close friends. They chatted about their family, their goals, and nostalgia. Sun was older and wiser and told Mi about his view on life. He told Mi that he should be able to accept failure, but not accept not trying. Sun told him success consisted going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Sun helped boost Mi’s spirits; they boosted each other’s spirit. Sun also told Mi about his secret mining spot; it was a small portion of the river hidden by a gigantic boulder. Sun told him he only went there at night because he didn’t want the other miners to find out. Sun and Mi were content searching but not finding much gold 12 hours a day when they worked together.
“I’ve been here for almost five months and still haven’t collected a ton of gold. Although I have found more gold than most people here, I still need more.” Sun suddenly reached into his pocket and held out a small bar of gold. “I sent most of the gold to my family already. This is the only gold I have right now.”
As he held out his shiny gold nugget, a white man close by glared enviously at the gold. Suddenly, the burly white man stood up from panning, dropped his pan, and started to walk towards Sun. Sun noticed and was immediately nervous.
“You dumb coolie, why did you take my gold?”
“No sir,” said Sun in bad English. Sun continued to pan, trying to let the white man to realize he was busy and trying to let the white man realize he can’t speak English well.
“Clearly you came over to my pan and took away my gold.”
“No sir,” said Sun still looking down into the river and panning.
“You dumb Chinese slave. Get out of my country.”
Before Sun or Mi could react, the burly white man kicked Sun square in the face and snatched the gold out of Sun’s pockets and left. Sun laid there groaning in pain, bleeding profusely from his forehead. Mi immediately picked him up, ripped a piece of cloth off his attire, dipped the cloth in the river water, wrapped it around Sun’s head, and took Sun to San Francisco’s Chinatown to get his head treated.  He did not have time to tell the other Chinese miners about the incident because their concern would just create delay. Violence towards the Chinese was not uncommon and Mi knew testifying against white citizens was hopeless.   Although Mi was extremely irritated by the white man, he did not wish to seek revenge because he knew revenge would end up hurting him. After that day, Mi did not see Sun for awhile.
Three months had passed and Mi still did not have enough gold to send to jinshanzhuang, which in turn would send the money to his family. Mi started to have trouble falling asleep. Mi’s hardened passionate heart beat furiously throughout the day and night. As he panned the river waters for gold, Mi only got a few more miniscule nuggets. One night, Mi was too discontent to sleep. Lee had lied to him. Life in America was a lot harder than he had expected, but he was not going to give up. He picked up his pan and walked towards Sun’s secret mining spot while the other miners were still sleeping. It was pitch dark besides for the moon; the moon was pure and bright but not golden like the sun. Mi panned throughout the dark night and found a few nuggets of gold, which was more than he would normally find during the day. Sun’s secret mining spot seemed to be filled with gold. Mi panned in a trance-like state. Mi did not feel the pain of crouching by the riverside for hours. His hands were freezing from the cold water, his face was peeling off with the dirt, his shirt was in rags, and his shoes had long worn out, and he was even skinnier. This was America. Mi took all the opportunities possible, no matter how painful they would be and no matter if the opportunities succeeded or not; he needed to use this valuable night time, where he could be alone in the secret mining spot, to find some gold nuggets. He was starting to see his future brighten again as he found some more gold nuggets appear in his pan. Suddenly, he fainted from fatigue and entered the darkness again.
Some of the Chinese miners started to wake up from their depressing sleeps. They began another day filled with unfulfilled dreams. A fellow Chinese immigrant named Xiao saw Mi’s head poking out from the side of a boulder. Xiao thought he was sleeping and yelled at him to wake up. Mi didn’t respond. Xiao walked behind the boulder and saw Mi sprawled near the river motionless. Xiao quickly cried for help and a group of Chinese immigrants surrounded Mi, lifted him up, and brought him to San Francisco’s Chinatown nursing house to rest.  Mi slept like a baby in the nursing house. Three days later, Mi was fully conscious; he was gloomy but still motivated. He realized the other miners probably stole his gold he had collected that night because he had fallen unconscious. Suddenly as he was eating his meager breakfast and getting ready to go back to the Gold Mountain again, Sun walked into the room. Unexpectedly, Sun was not the wrinkly self he used to be. He wore lavish golden clothes and radiated wealth.
“Two months ago, I recovered and left this nursing home. Instead of settling in one spot and looking for gold, I went to the Sacremento River to mine for gold.  One day when the sun was golden, the sun shined its light on a section of a river I had never searched before. I ran to that spot and started panning; I found a humongous gold deposit in the stream. Making sure no grumpy white man was watching me, I quickly collected all the gold, stored it into a sack, and made myself wealthy. My family in China is prosperous now. If you had not saved me so swiftly, I would have died from the injuries the white man inflicted on me. Therefore, I am here now to make sure your family is prosperous like mine. I would be nothing without you. Consider the wealth I give you a payment to your never-ending determination to succeed; to your life as a hard-working Chinese immigrant.”
Mi looked at the golden Sun and his eyes glistened with tears of joy.