The Chinese usually worked in large groups of 30 - 100 men. They were able to share the small amounts of gold they found. They looked for gold on land that other miners had searched before. The European miners thought that the land was still their land. The Chinese miners lived and worked together. Most of them had been farmers in China. They were used to long hours of hard work. They were used to basic food and houses. It has been said that they "rarely paid for the mining leases". They were happy to find a lot of small pieces of gold, instead of looking for one big piece that would make them rich.