Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in China, TX

China, Texas, was first known as China Grove, a water stop on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad that sat in the middle of a grove of chinaberry trees, around which a small community grew in the 1860s.

A post office named 'China' was established in 1893, and when fire destroyed the China Grove depot in 1906 the railroad rebuilt in the larger nearby community of Nashland but kept the established name China.

Although the community dates to the 1860s, residents only voted to incorporate as the city of China in 1971.

During World War II, a small branch camp near China held German prisoners of war sent from Camp Huntsville, who were put to work maintaining local rice fields while area farmers served in the military.

China had a population of 1,260 at the 2020 census, up 8.6% from 1,160 in 2010, and the whole city covers only about 1.3 square miles in Jefferson County.

The 2020 census counted 519 households in China, about 72% of them family households, and roughly seven in ten of the city's homes were owner-occupied.

The chinaberry trees that gave China its name are now rare locally, and two trees transplanted to the front lawn of the city's civic complex in the mid-1990s are among the few remaining examples.

China Elementary School hosted an annual Chinaberry Festival for years to celebrate the city's people and history.

China is part of the Hardin-Jefferson Independent School District: local children attend China Elementary through fifth grade, then Henderson Middle School and Hardin-Jefferson High School.

China is part of the Beaumont-Port Arthur metropolitan area in Southeast Texas, near the Big Thicket country of the Piney Woods.