California China Connection

California and China have had a long and storied connection, the most well known is the Chinese laborers who built the California Railroads. But on this adventure Huell finds a few lesser known, example of California's & China's Gold. A brief stop at the Bonsai Collection North introduces us to the Bonsai tree given to Envoy Burlingame from the Lincoln Presidency. Anson Burlingane opened China to the US in the 1860's, on his way home he got this tree in Japan and its been in the US ever since. Next stop is The Social Saloon of the SS CHINA built in 1866, it made many trips from the US to China before it was beached on Belvedere Cove in 1886. Huell visits the beautifully restored gilded Victorian drawing room that was salvaged when the side-wheeler was burned for scrap metal.