China Joe was a Chinese American

Chinese American

Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...

 merchant who worked in Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 during its gold-mining boom days in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

His Chinese name is not known exactly, and varies from source to source:

• As Hie in Juneau in 1881
• Chew Chung Thui
• Hi Ching as listed in an 1880 census conducted by the United States Navy
  United States Navy
  The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
  
  
• Hi Chung in Juneau newspapers of 1892 and 1894, and upon joining the '87 Pioneers Association
• Lee Hing
• Ting Tu Wee or Chung Thui upon registering under a Chinese Registration Act of 1893

Joe first came to North America in 1864, landing in Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

 and moving to Boise, Idaho

Boise, Idaho

Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...

. He moved to the Cassiar region

Cassiar Country

The Cassiar Country, also referred to simply as the Cassiar, is one of the historical geographic regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia...

 in 1874 and operated a bakery near Dease Lake

Dease Lake, British Columbia

Dease Lake is a small community located in the Cassiar Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Located only a few hours south of the Yukon border, it is located on Highway 37 at the south end of the lake of the same name. Dease Lake is the last major centre before the Alaska...

. He was known for fair prices of his goods, especially around 1875 when the area's primary supply route, the Stikine River

Stikine River

The Stikine River is a river, historically also the Stickeen River, approximately 610 km long, in northwestern British Columbia in Canada and southeastern Alaska in the United States...

, froze early and steamboats were unable to deliver things such as flour. He was well-known for his generosity toward miners.

He moved to Wrangell

Wrangell, Alaska

Wrangell is a city and borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. At the 2000 census the population was 2,308.Its Tlingit name is Ḵaachx̱aana.áakʼw . The Tlingit people residing in the Wrangell area, who were there centuries before Europeans, call themselves the Shtaxʼhéen Ḵwáan after the nearby Stikine...

 about 1878. He purchased an abandoned steamwheeler named the Hope, built a restaurant and bakery in the hull, and rented out the staterooms. The business worked well for about a year until Wrangell began to decline. Joe then moved to Sitka, Alaska and operated a bakery there.

In the summer of 1881 Joe moved to Juneau

Juneau, Alaska

The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900...

. He bought half of a town lot on July 18 at the corner of Third and Main streets. The estate cost $60USD. There he opened the city's first bakery, where he lived for 36 years. Supporters worked to keep Joe in Juneau when Chinese workers in the Treadwell gold mine

Treadwell gold mine

The Treadwell gold mine was the largest mine of the Alaskan Panhandle and, in its time, the largest gold mine in the world. During its operation from 1881 to 1922 over 3 million troy ounces of gold were extracted. The mine was owned and operated by John Treadwell , from whom it derives its name...

 were forced out of the city in 1886. Joe was proud to be an active member of the early Juneau community. He is buried in Juneau's Evergreen Cemetery

Evergreen Cemetery (Juneau, Alaska)

Evergreen Cemetery is a cemetery in Juneau, the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska. It was established in 1887 to replace the older cemetery on Chicken Ridge, near Main Street, when that location was staked as a gold mine. Most of the graves in this older cemetery were moved to the new cemetery...

.