Entry No. 25 — the Santa Cruz file — filed under: forgotten history
New Brighton State Beach (site of China Beach village)
Long before it was a campground, this cove was called China Beach — a Chinese fishing village that supplied labor and seafood to the whole county from the 1850s on, until the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and displacement by other fishermen erased it so completely that by 1900 almost nothing remained, a vanishing most beachgoers never learn happened right under their tents.
The story
When you pull into 1500 Park Avenue and pitch a tent under the bluff-top pines, you think you're just paying for a scenic ocean view above Monterey Bay. You're actually camping on top of an erased town. Starting in the 1850s, this sheltered cove below the bluffs was known as China Beach—a bustling, self-contained Chinese fishing village whose residents dried squid, hauled rockfish, and effectively fed the entire county for half a century.
The village was built directly on the shoreline, but local economic hostility and federal legislation systematically tore it down. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act stripped the fishermen of their legal protections, while aggressive displacement by competing fishermen squeezed them off the beach. By 1900, the shacks and drying racks were wiped clear, leaving the cove open for modern rebrandings—including a 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps camp—that buried the site's true history beneath state park campgrounds.
What it's like
Pull up to the bluff-top campsites and you'll find families cooking dinner under Monterey pines, oblivious to the history under their tents. Head down to the sand at low tide: if you time your visit around a winter king tide or extreme low tide, you can take a two-mile roundtrip shoreline walk from New Brighton straight to Capitola. Watch the tide tables carefully so you don't get trapped against the bluffs, and keep your eyes on the sand below—you won't find historical plaques or ruins, just the quiet, strange knowledge of an entire vanished community.
The move: Camp or picnic at the bluff-top sites above the cove, then walk down to the sand at low tide and try to find any trace of the fishing camp that supported the whole county's table for fifty years before it was wiped off the map.
- 📍 Capitola/Aptos border
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 1500 Park Ave, Capitola, CA 95010
Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Seacliff State Beach — SS Palo Alto wreck — Drive just over a mile down the coast to check out another coastal relic—a decaying 1920s concrete WWI tanker that was turned into a floating ballroom before breaking in half.
- Rispin Mansion Community Park — Head a mile inland to Capitola to explore the grounds of a 1920s real-estate stunt mansion that went bankrupt and later served as a convent.
- Middleof (The Puppetry Institute) — Swap the ghost of a lost coastal village for a bizarre, 5,000-square-foot walk-through puppet realm housed inside a dead Capitola Mall anchor store.
Good to know
Where exactly was China Beach located?
The village sat along the beach and cove directly below the bluffs that now host New Brighton State Beach, on the Capitola/Aptos border.
Why did the fishing village disappear?
Displacement by rival fishermen, local prejudice, and the federal 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act systematically forced the villagers out, erasing the camp entirely by 1900.
Can you walk along the beach to Capitola?
Yes, during sufficiently low tides, you can do a roughly two-mile roundtrip walk along the sand between New Brighton State Beach and Capitola.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Wikipedia · parks.ca.gov · santacruztrains.com · santacruz.org
last checked: 2026-07-20