 The first known Chinese woman to immigrate was Marie Seise who arrived in 1848 and worked in the household of Charles V. Gillespie.Within a matter of months of Seise's arrival to the West Coast, the rush for gold in California commenced which brought a flooding of prospective miners from around the globe.Among this group were Chinese, primarily from the Guangdong Province, most of whom were seafarers who had already established Western contacts.