People of Chinese descent have lived in Idaho since the mid-1800s. Although currently Idaho's Chinese American, and Asian American, population is very small, with people of Chinese descent only making up 0.3% of Idaho's population, in the 1870s and 1880s, Idaho's Chinese community was by far the largest by percentage of any state in the U.S. Although the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act effectively limited new Chinese settlement in Idaho, leading to the decline of the community, there still remains some historical sites throughout the state that indicate a large Chinese presence at the time. History Compared to the other Pacific Northwest states of Oregon and Washington, Chinese Americans were relatively late to settle in Idaho, with many moving to Idaho after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad to take part in Idaho's mining and forestry industries. By 1870, Idaho's Chinese population of 4,274 made up 30% of Idaho's population of 14,999 at the time, giving Idaho by far the highest Chinese population per capita of any state. Boise's Chinatown was also the largest in the United States at the time, with a Chinese community of 1,754 in 1870, making up 45.7% of the population of Boise. Boise's Chinese community were largely immigrants from Guangdong. Establishments in Boise's Chinatown included multiple restaurants, merchandise stores, laundries, and herbal medicine shops and apothecaries, including two managed by three generations of the Ah Fong family, an influential Chinese family in Boise. There was also a Chinese Masonic Hall, a Chinese Odd Fellows Building, two Tong halls, and a Chinese cemetery. The Chinese Odd Fellows Building is the last remaining building from Boise's Chinatown, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Chinatown was located along Idaho Street, and went east from 8th Street to Grove Street and Front Street. Garden City, a separate city that is an enclave of Boise, was also largely founded by Chinese immigrants. The city was named for the number of gardens that Chinese immigrants used to grow Chinese crops in, and the main street in Garden City, Chinden Boulevard, is a portmanteau of "China" and "garden". Following the passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and Idaho's anti-miscegenation laws, the original Chinese community effectively died out as new immigrants were banned from entering the country, and Chinese men, who made up the vast majority of immigrants, were unable to marry women of other races.