New Brighton State Beach, Nature reserve and national park in Capitola, United States.

New Brighton State Beach is a 95-acre beach park on Monterey Bay in Capitola, east of Santa Cruz off Highway 1. It consists of a sandy beach overlooking Soquel Cove and over one hundred tent and RV campsites set among oak, Monterey cypress, eucalyptus and pine trees, with wild berry vines around the sites.

China Beach was a Chinese fishing village settled in the 1850s; the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 contributed to its decline, and by 1900 it was gone. In the late 1870s Thomas Fallon, ex-mayor of San Jose, opened Camp San Jose nearby and renamed it New Brighton in 1882. California bought the China Beach land in 1933 for a state park, long left unnamed before it became New Brighton State Park.

The cove was called China Beach for the Chinese fishing village settled here in the 1850s; those residents supplied labor and food to the Santa Cruz region, and the village was gone by 1900. Thomas Fallon, an Irish immigrant and former mayor of San Jose, opened a campground east of the beach in the late 1870s and renamed it New Brighton in 1882.

The park has 114 campsites with picnic tables and fire grills, including eleven sites with electrical hookups for recreational vehicles. The best time to explore tide pools is during low tide.

The cove was first called China Beach for the Chinese fishing village settled here in the 1850s; its residents supplied labor and food to the Santa Cruz region. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 contributed to the village's decline, and by 1900 it had disappeared, leaving few traces.