A photo exhibition at Stanford University pays tribute to the Chinese workers who helped build the Transcontinental Railroad in the US 150 years ago.

More than 70 frames of historical and contemporary photos depicting the historical sites are on display at the bilingual exhibition, called The Chinese Helped Build the Railroad and the Railroad Helped Build America, which was organized by China's Guangxi Normal University Press and sponsored by the American Studies Program and the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University.

The Transcontinental Railroad, originally known as the Pacific Railroad, was completed in 1869, linking the West and the East for the first time in American history with a 1,907-mile contiguous railroad line.

Chinese laborers joined the workforce for the Western section, the most arduous phase of the construction; however, their role was largely neglected for many years.

Li Ju, a Beijing photographer and computer engineer, traveled along the railroad route four times. He revisited the sites captured by 19th century photographer Alfred Hart and documented his journey with photos.

In early 1865, the year the American Civil War ended, the Central Pacific Railroad arranged with labor contractors to recruit workers from China, mostly from Guangdong.

Desperate for work, the Chinese workers left their hometowns, which suffered from poverty and civil unrest, and boarded ships for California to support their families.

The Chinese railroad workers also played a key role in creating the fortune with which Leland Stanford founded Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

In 2012, the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America project was launched at Stanford University and began exploring and cataloging this history.

During his state visit in September, Chinese President Xi Jinping applauded the contribution of the workers.

"One-hundred fifty years ago, hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers traveled across the sea to the US to participate in the construction of the Pacific Railroad, paving the strategic corridor leading to the Western US and becoming a monument of Chinese compatriots in the US featuring pioneering, forging ahead and dedicated spirits," he said at a reception hosted by the Chinese community in Seattle on Sept 23.

The photo exhibition will run until Nov 18 and travel to New York next month.

liazhu@chinadaily.com.cn