To get the Canadian Pacific Railway built, the railway company used workers from China. Between 1881 and 1884, about 17,000 Chinese men came to Canada.The Chinese workers often faced discrimination. They were paid less than other workers, and had to live in cold, tents separate from the European workers. Some of the other workers thought that the Chinese men were taking jobs away from others. The Chinese immigrants had left their families in China and wanted to send back as much money as possible. To earn extra money, many of the Chinese railway workers took on tough, dangerous jobs, such as clearing and leveling the railway’s track bed and lighting explosives to blast tunnels through rock. More than 600 Chinese workers died.