New Brighton State Beach is a ninety-five-acre beach and campground on Monterey Bay in Capitola, beside Soquel Cove and Seacliff State Beach. The cove was once called China Beach for Chinese fishermen who settled there in the 1850s and contributed labor, food, and railroad work to the region, but discrimination, competition, and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 led to the village’s disappearance by 1900. In the late 1870s Thomas Fallon founded a nearby resort, later renamed New Brighton. California acquired the former China Beach land in 1933 for a state park. Today the park is known for camping, visitor education, and a rich coastal ecosystem of marine life and migratory birds.

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