The United States Court for China (“U.S. Court for China” or “Court”) was a United States federal court (“U.S. federal court”) of extraterritorial jurisdiction based in Shanghai. As a court of extraterritorial jurisdiction, its primary concern was governing Americans in China. One major question for the Court, however, was what law to apply. Unlike several United States (“U.S.”) states, the District of China had neither a general common law, nor a substantive law code passed by the U.S. Congress. In searching for law for the District, the judges of the U.S. Court for China drew from unexpected sources, including the Code of the District of Columbia and the Territorial Code of Alaska. This Article specifically explores some of the Alaskan law applied by the U.S. Court for China. In doing so, the judges of the Court revealed a conception of China that existed within the Western legal mind, that of a legal wilderness. From the analogy of legal wilderness of a lawless China, the judges of the Court responded with constructing a law suitable for such a situation.