Connie King makes a point of walking at least 10,000 steps a day. That’s about five miles — an impressive goal for the 84-year-old, especially in a town comprising only 10 acres. Eight years ago, Locke, California (population 80) had been on the brink of extinction. Bad plumbing and teetering, century-old shacks prompted the county to condemn the town, located 30 miles south of Sacramento. But King wasn’t about to let America’s last rural Chinatown — a national historic landmark — fade into history. Ling Woo Liu (’06) reports as a Hong Kong-based correspondent for TIME.

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