Canada seems like an unglamorous place to go in a world that offers London, New York and Paris. But Cantonese people have been going there since June 28, 1858, when Lee Chong and 300 other men arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, to join the gold rush. More than a million Chinese immigrants have followed. Between 1980 and 2000 alone, 362,000 people moved to Canada from Hong Kong. When people started to leave Hong Kong before the 1997 handover, Vancouver and Toronto were their destinations of choice, but that would not always have been the case. The 100 years that passed after Lee and his family settled in Victoria were not good times for Chinese-Canadians. They faced racism from people of European ancestry who feared being overwhelmed by Asian immigration. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Chinese were denied the right to vote, effectively banning them from government jobs. A crushing head tax of up to C$500 (HK$2,960) was imposed on Chinese immigrants, in part to discourage labourers from bringing their families from China and settling down. At the time, it was enough money to buy two houses. As the number of Chinese in Canada increased, so too did tensions. In 1907, an anti-Asian riot swept through Vancouver's Chinatown, destroying many businesses. In 1917 and 1918, the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia made it illegal for Chinese-owned restaurants and laundries to hire Caucasian women. Finally, from 1923 to 1947, the Chinese Immigration Act banned almost all immigration from China to Canada. In the years following the second world war, Canada changed politically. A growing liberalism emerged and the nation opened its doors to more immigration. In 1967, Canada passed a new Immigration Act with a merit-based application system that gave people points based on education, profession and family circumstances. Ethnicity and national origin were not factors. 'It was the first time in history that Chinese were evaluated with everyone else,' said Peter Li, a Hong Kong-born sociologist at the University of Saskatchewan in western Canada. Mr Li said Canada became known as a place where Chinese would be treated fairly, at a time when Europe and Australia had a reputation for not welcoming Asian immigrants and the US had restrictive immigration quotas. He said that at one point, the US would only take 200 people from Hong Kong per year while Canada had no such restriction. These early overtures to Chinese immigrants would resonate for years to come. Mr Li said Canada's positive reputation for receiving Chinese was the main reason so many pre-handover immigrants went there, even when there were more glamorous options. In 1967, the year Canada liberalised its immigration policies, Spencer Lee was a young man getting ready to attend medical school at Hong Kong University. But fate had other plans. The late 1960s were troubled times in Hong Kong, as the Cultural Revolution on the mainland spilled over the border and Maoists rioted against British colonial rule. Bombs exploded in Central and there were clashes between Red Guards and the British military on the border with the mainland. Mr Lee's family searched for somewhere safe to send their son, and Canada had just put out the welcome mat. He was packed off to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. 'Every time something bad happens in Hong Kong or China, another wave of people head to Canada,' said Mr Lee, who studied law and now runs his own firm in Hong Kong after spending 11 years in Canada. In the 1960s and 1970s, Canada was often chosen for practical reasons. Many universities there did not charge extra tuition fees for foreign students and allowed them to work while studying. For middle-class Hong Kong families it was a golden opportunity. Stan Cheung Tsang-kay went to Canada in 1964 to study at the University of Manitoba and was astounded by how kind people were to him. 'Sure I faced discrimination in Canada. The professors would give me all the best opportunities,' deadpanned Mr Cheung, who returned to Hong Kong in the late 1970s to run the family business, Herald Holdings. China has made Mr Cheung a wealthy man but he is still so in love with Canada - and Manitoba in particular - that even after being back for almost 30 years, he still calls himself a Manitoban.