The history of Jewish Diaspora in modern China has a much clearer beginning, starting in the second half of the 19thcentury when China was forced to open her doors to Western powers. Jews came in several waves. First came Sephardic Jews, originally form Baghdad and Bombay, to look for business opportunities in newly-opened Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong in the second half of the 19th century. By the beginning of the 20th century they had built up solid Jewish communities in those cities. The second wave was the arrival of Ashkenazi Jews from Russia and other East European countries. Most of them first arrived in Harbin and contiguous zones in Northeast China. Later many of them moved to southern regions of China. Although a few came in search of better economic opportunities, the majority was either fleeing from pogroms or revolutions in Russia in the early 20th century. The third wave was the arrival of European Jewish refugees. During 1937-1940 about 20,000 European Jewish refugees swarmed into Shanghai, which became a refuge for thousands of Jews fleeing from countries under Nazi control. The last wave was the arrival of some 1,000 Jews from Poland and other Eastern European countries in the early 1940s. In general, in the period of 1845-1945 more than 40,000 Jews came to China for business development or for a safe haven.