California/China Connection

California and China have had a long and storied connection, the most well known is the Chinese laborers who helped build the California railroads. But on this adventure, Huell finds a few lesser-known examples of California's and China's Gold. A brief stop at the Golden State Bonsai Collection-North in Oakland introduces us to the Bonsai tree given to Chinese Envoy Anson Burlingame of the Lincoln Presidency. Burlingame opened China to the U.S. in the 1860s, and this souvenir from his tenure has been in the U.S. ever since. Huell's next stop is The Social Saloon of the SS China built in 1866. The passenger ship made many trips from the U.S. to China before it was beached on Belvedere Cove in 1886. Huell visits its beautifully restored gilded Victorian drawing room that was salvaged when the side-wheeler was burned for scrap metal.