Those exempt from the Chinese Exclusion Act were “non-labor Chinese students, teachers, merchants, or those ‘proceeding to the United States from curiosity’ [travelers] were permitted entry. The act expressly defined “Chinese laborers” as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining.” ¹

1. West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. S.v. “Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882;” digital images, (http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com  : accessed 6 Mar 2017).