The China Creek showing is on Asp (China) Creek, 650 metres northwest of the creek's confluence with the Tulameen River, just north of Princeton.

This coal deposit occurs near the centre of the Princeton Basin, a northerly trending fault-bounded trough filled by Eocene volcanic rocks of mainly intermediate composition, comprising the Lower Volcanic Formation, and an overlying Eocene sedimentary sequence of sandstone, shale, waterlain rhyolite tephra (tuff) and coal, up to 2000 metres thick, comprising the Allenby Formation.

The deposit appears to lie 107 metres stratigraphically below the Princeton-Black-Blue Flame coal zone, the stratigraphically lowest and thickest of four significant coal-bearing zones in a 530-metre section in the Allenby Formation (Princeton Group) (Geological Survey of Canada Paper 52-12, page 23).

A 4.9-metre thick coal-bearing section, with interbedded shale, clay and bentonite, is exposed along the creek's south bank. The section strikes northeast and dips southeast. It contains about 1.8 metres of mostly dirty coal, concentrated near its base. One coal seam, 1.3 metres thick, contains three thin bentonite partings and one 19-centimetre thick band of dirty coal. The seam is comprised of 91 centimetres of clean coal (Geological Survey of Canada Paper 52-12, Figure 2, prospect 6).

The deposit was explored by a short adit some time before 1947.