Dragon’s Gate is the story of one boy’s struggle to rebuild his dreams against the background of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Otter has always dreamed of going to America, "the Land of the Golden Mountain." There, together with his adoptive father and his hero, Uncle Foxfire, he plans to learn everything he can about American technology. Armed with this knowledge, they can all return to China and carry out the Great Work---to free China from the tyranny of the Manchu and other invaders.
When an accident forces Otter to flee his home, he is more than ready to join his father and uncle in California, where they are working on the great transcontinental railroad. But, the America that Otter finds is not what he had expected. The Chinese workers are essentially slaves, driven to achieve the seemingly impossible task of chiseling a path for the railroad through the Sierra Nevada.
ragon’s Gate is the story of one boy’s struggle to rebuild his dreams against the background of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Otter has always