There are approximately 19,000 ethnic Chinese within the city of Philadelphia. Of these, roughly 13,000 are foreign born. As the majority of the ethnic Chinese population emigrated from Mainland China, many claim origins from Hong Kong or Taiwan. Immigration numbers of ethnic Chinese have risen dramatically since the passage of the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, which banned immigration quotas. Community providers identify a general immigration trend in Philadelphia's population: those who arrived before and during the early 1980s tended to come from southern China or from other Southeast Asian countries because of turbulence from wars; those who have arrived in the last twenty years are more likely to have come from the more central Fujian Province, including the areas surrounding Shanghai.

There is a general trend among the elderly Chinese that consists of a well-balanced education with high levels of social capital. Many of them fled to the United States during or directly after the Chinese civil war that lasted from 1945-1949. For example, most have at least some middle and high school education, while some have university or professional degrees. The immigrant population of the ethnic Chinese today consists of lesser-educated, rural individuals who seek employment in the manufacturing and service sector of the American economy. While working with the Chinese community, it is important to note that though these people are from the same country, they may not be able to communicate with one another. This is because there are two major dialects of Chinese: Cantonese and Mandarin).
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For More Information

"A Brief History of Chinese Immigration to America"
http://www.ailf.org/awards/ahp_0001_essay01.htm
As its title implies, this is a brief history of Chinese immigration to America created by the American Law Foundation.

"Building the Gold Mountain: Philadelphia's Chinatown." An exhibit by the Balch Institute of Politics
http://www2.hsp.org/exhibits/Balch%20exhibits/chinatown/chinatown.html
This website is very interesting. It contains old photographs and essays about history and the rise of Chinatown in Philadelphia.

"Recent Trends in Immigration to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" by Fels Institute of Government at Univeristy of Penn
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/fels/philapopulation.htm
This document contains a brief history of the immigration patterns of this population in Philadelphia, why this population came here, and what parts of the city they live in now.

The World Fact Book
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
This CIA website contains an extremely large amount of information about all of the countries in the world such as: history, geography, information about its citizens, government, economy, transnational issues, and more. To find out information about this country, pull it down from the menu.