The entrance to this cemetery is guarded by a pair of Chinese lions, one on each of the supporting pillars for the entrance arch. Each appears to be carved of granite and rests upon a separate granite block on a concrete base. Above the lions is a tiled pagoda styled roof over an entrance arch made of heavy timbers and rising from concrete piers. The markings on the arch are in Chinese, which we are unable to translate. The lions and the entrance arch were installed recently as part of the upgrades and restoration done to the cemetery.
The cemetery was begun in the 1860s, with the first interments being those of Chinese miners who died in the Kamloops area. Later, when the CPR's transcontinental line was being built through this area in the mid 1880s, thousands of Chinese railroad workers lived in the area, many drifting elsewhere after the completion of the railway. Many, however, remained in the area and are the ancestors of much of the present Chinese community in Kamloops. Every year the Ching Ming Festival is still performed out of respect for those buried in this cemetery.
The cemetery itself is now a British Columbia Heritage Site.
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