Kaiping Tramway and Imperial Railways of North China
Encyclopedia
Often described as China’s first railway, the first standard gauge railway to be built and survive in China was the Kaiping (開平) colliery tramway located at Tongshan
in Hebei
province. This was not, however, truly the first railway in China. An earlier attempt to introduce railways had been made in 1876 when the short Shanghai
to Wusong
narrow gauge line known as the "Woosung Road Company" was built but then pulled up within less than two years because of Chinese government opposition.
(唐景星 a.k.a. Tang Ting-shu 唐廷樞)was a Hong Kong Government interpreter who later became Jardine Matheson & Company
’s head comprador
at Shanghai. In 1878 Tong, who was then Director-General of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company
, commenced coal mining operations in the Kaiping
district with the backing of the powerful Viceroy of Zhili
Li Hongzhang
.
The first shaft was sunk at Tongshan
in 1879 by the new Chinese Engineering and Mining Company
(CEMC) under the direction of English mining engineer Robert Reginald Burnett, MICE. To transport coal from the mine to ships on the river at Beitang entailed carrying it a distance of nearly 30 miles and Tong King Sing attempted but was unable to gain permission to build a railway for this purpose.
was constructed from Lutai on the river to Hsukochuang which was the point beyond which the canal could not physically run. The Managing Director, Tong eventually received permission for the last seven miles to the Tongshan colliery to be covered by a mule-pulled “tramway” and English civil engineer Claude William Kinder
was employed and given responsibility for its construction, which was completed in 1881.
Kinder insisted on building the tramway to the international Standard gauge
of 1,435 mm, to make sure the tramway could be turned into a full railway. He also set about constructing a steam locomotive using the boiler and other parts from a portable steam winding engine borrowed from the colliery. After word had leaked out about its construction, the engine had to be concealed for several weeks until Viceroy Li Hung Chang gave word for the construction to continue. The result of Kinder’s efforts came to fruition on 9 June 1881 when the home-made 2-4-0
tank engine christened “Rocket of China” entered service on the tramway.
tank locomotives were ordered from Robert Stephenson & Co.
, Newcastle
. They arrived in October and were given running Nos. 2 and 3. These were the first two standard gauge locomotives ever imported into China. While some sources claim that an 0-4-0
engine numbered “0” now preserved in the Beijing Locomotive Museum was the first engine imported into China, this is unlikely to be accurate.
's opposition to railway development in China didn't allow for any further development for several years. However, because the canal would become covered with ice during the winter months, the mining company succeeded in 1886 in gaining permission to extend the tramway all the way to Lutai. The extension was carried out by a newly formed Kaiping Railway Company (Kaiping Tiehlu Gongsi 開平鐵路公司 s:开平铁路公司), separately funded from the mining company, chaired by the Tientsin Taotai (Tianjin daotai 天津 道台) Chou Fu (Zhou Fu 周馥). The managing directorship was given to Wu Tingfang
, who had studied law in England and was also interpreter and secretary to Li Hung Chang.
Assisted by the young American-educated student engineer (a Yung Wing
mission student), Kwang King Yang (Kuang Jingyang 鄺景揚 s: 邝景扬 ) a.k.a. K.Y. Kwong and Kuang Sunmou, Kinder supervised the building of the extension which was completed in April 1887. For the extension, German Krupp
rails had been were imported, as well as a ten-wheeled 2-6-2
saddle-tank locomotive from the Grant Locomotive Works
of New Jersey (No.4), and forty 10-ton coal wagons.
for military purposes. Kinder was called upon to survey the route. Li had to overcome opposition in the Imperial Court but gained sanction for the line to be extended 50 miles to Tianjin
. Kinder, as Chief Engineer of the now newly named China Railway Company, was then permitted to secure the services of several more foreign engineers which included Resident Engineers A.W.H. Bellingham and W. Watson. The whole project was completed within fourteen months, with limited train services commencing in August 1888.
This period of railway development was not smooth sailing, and there was continued opposition to the railway on a number of fronts. At various times there were organized riots against the railway and in one instance thousands of dollars worth of damage was done to mining equipment at the Tongshan colliery when a violent feud erupted between Cantonese and northern Chinese workers. Another severe blow was China’s first-recorded serious train accident on 25 March 1889 when there was a head-on collision between two trains at Chung Liang Cheng (Junliangcheng
軍糧城 s: 军粮城). English train driver, M. Jarvis, had waited a long time in the station passing loop and impatiently entered the next section of single track before the arrival of an oncoming train. As a result of the collision, four carriages caught fire and several injured people were burned alive. Driver Dawson survived but the offending driver, Jarvis, one fireman and seven passengers died in the crash, while more died several days later from their burns and injuries. It was alleged by junior staff that Jarvis had been drinking heavily before the crash. Further troubles came weeks later, in April 1888, when a newly completed steel bridge across the Pei Ho river (today’s Haihe 海河) in the heart of Tientsin, connecting with the foreign settlements, caused unrest with local boatmen fearful that the railway would harm their interests. Li ordered the destruction of the bridge by dynamite, causing the company a loss of £8000 and many months work.
and northeastwards towards the Great Wall. Imperial Court opposition prevented the western extension but the northern extension was sanctioned and reached Guye
in late 1890, Lanchou in 1892 and Shanhaiguan
in 1893, during which period the line was transferred to the control of a newly formed Imperial Chinese Railway Administration .
It was during this period of expansion that Jeme Tien Yow joined the railway company in 1888 as a cadet engineer under Kinder’s supervision. Kinder highly appreciated the talents of this Yale-graduated engineer and Jeme was soon promoted first to Resident and then District Engineer. In all Jeme spent 12 years working on various sections of this railway. Jeme later achieved international recognition as the Engineer-in-Chief who built the Imperial Peking-Kalgan
Railway without any foreign assistance.
, Shenyang
and Jilin
were set back by the lack of funds and because of war between Japan and China (August 1894 to March 1895). By 1896 the rails had only reached Chung Ho So (pinyin: Zhonghesuo 中河所), some 40 miles beyond Shan Hai Kuan. China’s loss of the war with Japan brought about Li Hung Chang’s disgrace and virtual removal from power, and with this came new management. After a short power struggle between rival factions Sheng Hsuan Huai (pinyin: Sheng Xuanhuai
succeeded in gaining control of this new organization and appointed his own supporters to the directorate of whom the most prominent of these was Hu Yu-fen who was appointed Director-General and made responsible for the all sections of the “Northern” Railway and the name evolved yet again in 1897 into “Imperial Railways of North China”
to Yingkou
. The loan was arranged by the British and Chinese Corporation, a joint venture and front for the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Jardine Matheson and Company. In spite of objections from the Russians (who were themselves busy grabbing control of Chinese territory in Manchuria) the line to Chinchou was eventually completed in 1899. Back at the western end of the railway the line had reached Fengtai
and shortly afterwards a new Ma Chiu Pu terminus outside Peking in 1897 from where a Siemens
built electric tramway was laid to the city’s South Gate, or Yongdingmen
, which opened for service in 1899.
suppress the reformist young Guangxu Emperor
and grab power back into her own hands.
and a gap was made in the outer city wall for this purpose next to the Yung Ting Men
gatehouse.
A few months later the foreign military authorities decided to take the railway even closer to central Peking and extended the line to near the front gate of the Tartar city at Zhengyangmen as well as the addition of a branch line eastwards to Tongzhou. Also during this period of foreign military control a small port was developed at Qinhuangdao
with a six mile branch line joining the main line a few miles southwest of Shan Hai Kuan at Tangho .This port, which had been used for landing allied military personnel and supplies, was later turned over to and further developed by the Chinese Engineering & Mining Co.
For two years (1900-1902) the railway was placed under the overall command of a British army “Royal Engineers” contingent which used the name “British Railway Administration” (BRA) for the purposes of operating the line as far north as Shan Hai Kuan. From this point the Russians retained control of the line northwards until the whole line was handed back to the Imperial Chinese authorities on 29 September 1902. During the BRA period the railway operated a travelling post office train and a special overprinted Chinese postal stamp was introduced for mailing letters carried by the BRA’s express mail trains.
had himself appointed as Director-General of Railways and Kinder’s former boss, Hu Yu-fen, who had been ousted in 1899, came back to power as the Assistant Director-General. The Chinese railway administration also had the services of a bright Western-educated new Secretary, returned Chinese Educational Mission student Liang Ju Hao (pinyin: Liang Ruhao 梁汝浩) , better known to Europeans as M.T. Liang.
(Shenyang). During the Russo-Japanese War
of 1904-5 the Japanese laid a military narrow gauge line from Hsin Min Tung to Mukden in their bid to oust the Russians. In 1907 this extension was purchased by Imperial Railways of North China and in 1909 the line up-graded to standard gauge with Japanese assistance. The IRNC terminus was later moved to Mukden proper and eventually shared the impressive Shenyang railway terminus which was constructed 1909-1910 by the Japanese South Manchuria Railway. By this time the railway was generally referred to as the ‘Peking-Mukden Railway’
Hu Yu-fen, with whom Kinder had in later years enjoyed a cordial relationship, died in 1906 and this led to the appointment in 1907 of a Yuan Shi Kai’s protégé, Liang Shi Yi as the head of a newly created Chief Railway Bureau. Liang in turn appointed independent directors for each of China’s different railway lines, which included the IRNC. Within months Kinder had huge differences of opinion with Liang and in particular over the engagement and dismissal of foreign engineers. Unable to reconcile these differences, Kinder submitted his resignation in October 1908 following the termination of three foreign engineers without Liang even consulting Kinder. Kinder left China on retirement in 1909 and never returned.
Kinder was appointed C.M.G. by the British in 1900 and in 1905 was created a “Mandarin of the Red Button” (Chinese Official Rank of the Second Class) for meritorious service by the Imperial Chinese Government. He was also awarded the “Order of the Double Dragon” (Shuang long bao xing 雙龍寶星s: 双龙宝星). In a display of growing local nationalism, Liang also snubbed Kinder’s recommendation for his Deputy Chief Engineer (Alex Cox) to be promoted as his replacement and chose instead Englishman A. Harvey Bellingham who was then Municipal Engineer for Tientsin. Bellingham, however, died suddenly before taking up the appointment, whereupon Liang leap-frogged a more junior engineer over the head of Cox, as a continuing snub to Kinder.
There was much public criticism in the foreign press about Kinder’s supposedly shabby treatment by Liang, and Kinder retired to England a bitter man having been given no customary “golden handshake” for thirty years service. He was also denied payment for some 18 months in unpaid leave pay accumulated over many years. He was eventually offered a compensatory position of engineering adviser, resident in England but declined the offer. He died in Churt, England on August 9, 1935. The railway that Kinder and Tong Kong Sing had started however continued to prosper and after the fall of the Imperial Qing dynasty in 1911, the railway formed part of “Chinese National Railways”
Tangshan
"唐山"redirects here. For an alternative name of China, see Names of China#TangTangshan is a largely industrial prefecture-level city in Hebei province, People's Republic of China. It has become known for the 1976 Tangshan earthquake which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale and killed at least...
in Hebei
Hebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
province. This was not, however, truly the first railway in China. An earlier attempt to introduce railways had been made in 1876 when the short Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
to Wusong
Wusong
Wusong,Chinese: s , t , p Wúsōng. formerly Woosung, was a port town located fourteen miles downriver from Shanghai.The Battle of Woosung occurred on 16 June 1842 between British and Chinese forces during the First Opium War. It was the site of China's first telegraph wires and first railroad, both...
narrow gauge line known as the "Woosung Road Company" was built but then pulled up within less than two years because of Chinese government opposition.
History
Cantonese merchant Tong King-singTong King-sing
Tong King-sing , also known as Tang Tingshu was a Chinese comprador, interpreter, and businessman during the late Qing dynasty. Born in Xiangshan, Guangdong province, he studied in Robert Morrison's missionary schools as a boy and his classmates included Yung Wing...
(唐景星 a.k.a. Tang Ting-shu 唐廷樞)was a Hong Kong Government interpreter who later became Jardine Matheson & Company
Jardine Matheson Holdings
Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited often referred to as Jardines, is a multinational corporation incorporated in Bermuda and based in Hong Kong. While listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Singapore Exchange, the vast majority of Jardines shares are traded in Singapore...
’s head comprador
Comprador
Comprador or Compradore is a term used to describe native managers of European business houses in East Asia.-History:...
at Shanghai. In 1878 Tong, who was then Director-General of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company
China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company
China Merchants Group is a state owned corporation of People's Republic of China. It is the major share holder of China Merchants Holdings as well as China Merchants Bank...
, commenced coal mining operations in the Kaiping
Kaiping
Kaiping : Hoi3 Pen6) or Hoi Ping is a county-level city in Guangdong Province, southern China. It has a population of 680,000 as of 2003 and an area of 1,659 km². The locals speak a variation of the Taishan dialect.-Administration:...
district with the backing of the powerful Viceroy of Zhili
Viceroy of Zhili
The Viceroy of Zhili , fully referred to as the Governor General of Zhili and surrounding areas; Overseeing Military Affairs, Food Production; Manager of Waterways; Director of Civil Affairs , was one of eight regional viceroys in China proper during the Qing Dynasty of China...
Li Hongzhang
Li Hongzhang
Li Hongzhang or Li Hung-chang , Marquis Suyi of the First Class , GCVO, was a leading statesman of the late Qing Empire...
.
The first shaft was sunk at Tongshan
Tongshan
Tongshan may refer to:* Tongshan County, Hubei , of Xianning, Hubei, China* Tongshan District , formerly Tongshan County, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China**Tongshan Town, Xuzhou , town in Tongshan District...
in 1879 by the new Chinese Engineering and Mining Company
Chinese Engineering and Mining Company
The Chinese Engineering and Mining Company, Limited, was established with foreign capital around 1879 to mine coal for the steamships of the Chinese Merchants' Steam Navigation Company and the Imperial Chinese Navy. English mining engineer Robert Reginald Burnett, MICE, directed the first shaft at...
(CEMC) under the direction of English mining engineer Robert Reginald Burnett, MICE. To transport coal from the mine to ships on the river at Beitang entailed carrying it a distance of nearly 30 miles and Tong King Sing attempted but was unable to gain permission to build a railway for this purpose.
The Lutai Canal
Initially a canalCanal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
was constructed from Lutai on the river to Hsukochuang which was the point beyond which the canal could not physically run. The Managing Director, Tong eventually received permission for the last seven miles to the Tongshan colliery to be covered by a mule-pulled “tramway” and English civil engineer Claude William Kinder
Claude W. Kinder
Claude William Kinder C.M.G., was an English engineer. For over thirty years he was engineer-in-chief of the Kaiping Tramway and Imperial Railways of North China....
was employed and given responsibility for its construction, which was completed in 1881.
Kinder insisted on building the tramway to the international Standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
of 1,435 mm, to make sure the tramway could be turned into a full railway. He also set about constructing a steam locomotive using the boiler and other parts from a portable steam winding engine borrowed from the colliery. After word had leaked out about its construction, the engine had to be concealed for several weeks until Viceroy Li Hung Chang gave word for the construction to continue. The result of Kinder’s efforts came to fruition on 9 June 1881 when the home-made 2-4-0
2-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels....
tank engine christened “Rocket of China” entered service on the tramway.
The first imported locomotives
The introduction of “Rocket” was highly successful and in June 1882 two 0-6-00-6-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels...
tank locomotives were ordered from Robert Stephenson & Co.
Robert Stephenson and Company
Robert Stephenson and Company was a locomotive manufacturing company founded in 1823. It was the first company set up specifically to build railway engines.- Foundation and early success :...
, Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
. They arrived in October and were given running Nos. 2 and 3. These were the first two standard gauge locomotives ever imported into China. While some sources claim that an 0-4-0
0-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-0 represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven...
engine numbered “0” now preserved in the Beijing Locomotive Museum was the first engine imported into China, this is unlikely to be accurate.
The first extension to Lutai
While the Kaiping mine railway kept maintained operations, Imperial CourtImperial Court
An Imperial Court is the noble court of an empire .For example:*The noble court of an Emperor of China, Emperor of Japan, Emperor of Ethiopia, Emperor of Austria, Emperor of India, Emperor of Persia, etc....
's opposition to railway development in China didn't allow for any further development for several years. However, because the canal would become covered with ice during the winter months, the mining company succeeded in 1886 in gaining permission to extend the tramway all the way to Lutai. The extension was carried out by a newly formed Kaiping Railway Company (Kaiping Tiehlu Gongsi 開平鐵路公司 s:开平铁路公司), separately funded from the mining company, chaired by the Tientsin Taotai (Tianjin daotai 天津 道台) Chou Fu (Zhou Fu 周馥). The managing directorship was given to Wu Tingfang
Wu Tingfang
Wu Tingfang was a Chinese diplomat and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and briefly as Acting Premier during the early years of the Republic of China. He is also known under his Cantonese name Ng Choy -Biography:...
, who had studied law in England and was also interpreter and secretary to Li Hung Chang.
Assisted by the young American-educated student engineer (a Yung Wing
Yung Wing
Yung Wing . Born in Zhuhai in Guangdong province, he studied in Robert Morrison's missionary schools as a boy where Tong King-sing was a classmate.-Biography:...
mission student), Kwang King Yang (Kuang Jingyang 鄺景揚 s: 邝景扬 ) a.k.a. K.Y. Kwong and Kuang Sunmou, Kinder supervised the building of the extension which was completed in April 1887. For the extension, German Krupp
Krupp
The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...
rails had been were imported, as well as a ten-wheeled 2-6-2
2-6-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-6-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels.Other equivalent classifications are:...
saddle-tank locomotive from the Grant Locomotive Works
Grant Locomotive Works
Grant Locomotive Works was a manufacturer of steam railway locomotives from 1867 to 1895, first in Paterson, New Jersey and then in Chicago. The company built approximately 1,888 locomotives.-Predecessors:...
of New Jersey (No.4), and forty 10-ton coal wagons.
Second extension to Dagu and Tianjin
Soon afterward, Viceroy Li pressed for a further extension to Beitang and TakuTaku Forts
The Dagu Forts , also called the Peiho Forts are forts located by the Hai River estuary, in Tanggu District, Tianjin municipality, in northeastern China. They are located 60 km southeast of the Tianjin urban center.-History:The first fort was built during the reign of the Ming Jiajing...
for military purposes. Kinder was called upon to survey the route. Li had to overcome opposition in the Imperial Court but gained sanction for the line to be extended 50 miles to Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
. Kinder, as Chief Engineer of the now newly named China Railway Company, was then permitted to secure the services of several more foreign engineers which included Resident Engineers A.W.H. Bellingham and W. Watson. The whole project was completed within fourteen months, with limited train services commencing in August 1888.
This period of railway development was not smooth sailing, and there was continued opposition to the railway on a number of fronts. At various times there were organized riots against the railway and in one instance thousands of dollars worth of damage was done to mining equipment at the Tongshan colliery when a violent feud erupted between Cantonese and northern Chinese workers. Another severe blow was China’s first-recorded serious train accident on 25 March 1889 when there was a head-on collision between two trains at Chung Liang Cheng (Junliangcheng
Junliangcheng
JunliangchengChinese: t , s , p Jūnliángchéng, w Chun-liang-Cheng, lit. "Army Depot". is a town in the Dongli District of Tianjin in China....
軍糧城 s: 军粮城). English train driver, M. Jarvis, had waited a long time in the station passing loop and impatiently entered the next section of single track before the arrival of an oncoming train. As a result of the collision, four carriages caught fire and several injured people were burned alive. Driver Dawson survived but the offending driver, Jarvis, one fireman and seven passengers died in the crash, while more died several days later from their burns and injuries. It was alleged by junior staff that Jarvis had been drinking heavily before the crash. Further troubles came weeks later, in April 1888, when a newly completed steel bridge across the Pei Ho river (today’s Haihe 海河) in the heart of Tientsin, connecting with the foreign settlements, caused unrest with local boatmen fearful that the railway would harm their interests. Li ordered the destruction of the bridge by dynamite, causing the company a loss of £8000 and many months work.
Towards Beijing and Shanhaiguan
Shortly after the completion of the Tientsin section pressure was exerted for permission to build extensions westwards to BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and northeastwards towards the Great Wall. Imperial Court opposition prevented the western extension but the northern extension was sanctioned and reached Guye
Guye District
-Administrative Divisions:Subdistricts:*Tangjiazhuang Subdistrict , Zhaogezhuang Subdistrict , Linxi Subdistrict , Guye Subdistrict , Nanfangezhuang Subdistrict , Lüjiatuo Subdistrict Townships:...
in late 1890, Lanchou in 1892 and Shanhaiguan
Shanhaiguan District
Shanhaiguan District is a district of the city of Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, People's Republic of China, named after the pass of the Great Wall within the district, Shanhai Pass...
in 1893, during which period the line was transferred to the control of a newly formed Imperial Chinese Railway Administration .
It was during this period of expansion that Jeme Tien Yow joined the railway company in 1888 as a cadet engineer under Kinder’s supervision. Kinder highly appreciated the talents of this Yale-graduated engineer and Jeme was soon promoted first to Resident and then District Engineer. In all Jeme spent 12 years working on various sections of this railway. Jeme later achieved international recognition as the Engineer-in-Chief who built the Imperial Peking-Kalgan
Zhangjiakou
Zhangjiakou, also known also by several other names, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province of North China, adjacent to Beijing to the southeast. Its administrative area has a population of 4.35 million, and covers...
Railway without any foreign assistance.
Further northwards into Manchuria
Plans to continue the railway North-eastwards beyond Shan Hai Kuan (Shanhaiguan) to JinzhouJinzhou
Jinzhou , is a prefecture-level city of Liaoning province, China. It is a geographically strategic city located in the "Liaoxi Corridor" , which connects land transportation between North China and Northeast China. Jinzhou is China's northernmost seaport and the coastal economic center of West...
, Shenyang
Shenyang
Shenyang , or Mukden , is the capital and largest city of Liaoning Province in Northeast China. Currently holding sub-provincial administrative status, the city was once known as Shengjing or Fengtianfu...
and Jilin
Jilin
Jilin , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...
were set back by the lack of funds and because of war between Japan and China (August 1894 to March 1895). By 1896 the rails had only reached Chung Ho So (pinyin: Zhonghesuo 中河所), some 40 miles beyond Shan Hai Kuan. China’s loss of the war with Japan brought about Li Hung Chang’s disgrace and virtual removal from power, and with this came new management. After a short power struggle between rival factions Sheng Hsuan Huai (pinyin: Sheng Xuanhuai
Sheng Xuanhuai
Sheng Xuanhuai , November 4, 1844—April 27, 1916, 盛宣懷) was the Minister of Transportation during the Qing Dynasty. He is also known as Sheng Gongbao ....
succeeded in gaining control of this new organization and appointed his own supporters to the directorate of whom the most prominent of these was Hu Yu-fen who was appointed Director-General and made responsible for the all sections of the “Northern” Railway and the name evolved yet again in 1897 into “Imperial Railways of North China”
A Peking (Beijing) terminus at Ma Chia Pu (Majiabao)
During the period 1898-9 a British loan of ₤2,300,000 was negotiated and an issue of bonds raised in London for the purpose of extending this line northwards to Xinmin and a branch line from KoupangtzuGoubangzi
GoubangziChinese: t , s , p Gōubāngzi, PM Koupangtzu. is a town in Beizhen, Liaoning Province, China.It is located on the modern Beijing–Harbin Railway. It was an important rail junction in the late 19th century, with several spurs connecting to the mainline at the station....
to Yingkou
Yingkou
Yingkou is located in the northwestern portion of the Liaodong Peninsula, and on the left bank of the Daliao River, which enters the sea in the city. To the west is the Liaodong Bay of the Bohai Gulf, and the city thus looks across to Jinzhou and Huludao...
. The loan was arranged by the British and Chinese Corporation, a joint venture and front for the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Jardine Matheson and Company. In spite of objections from the Russians (who were themselves busy grabbing control of Chinese territory in Manchuria) the line to Chinchou was eventually completed in 1899. Back at the western end of the railway the line had reached Fengtai
Fengtai District
Fengtai District is a suburban district of the municipality of Beijing. It lies to the southwest of the urban core of the city.-History:In Qing Dynasty times, Fengtai was where the Imperial Manchu Army had its camps, trained, and held parades on festive occasions.It is 304.2 square kilometers in...
and shortly afterwards a new Ma Chiu Pu terminus outside Peking in 1897 from where a Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
built electric tramway was laid to the city’s South Gate, or Yongdingmen
Yongdingmen
Yongdingmen was the former front gate of the outer section of Beijing's old city wall. Originally built in 1553, it was torn down in the 1950s to make way for the new road system in Beijing. In 2005, the Yongdingmen was reconstructed at the site of the old city gate...
, which opened for service in 1899.
Boxer Destruction
The next set-back for the railway was the Boxer Uprising of 1900 which brought a complete halt to an further railway construction progress and also resulted in large sections of the existing railway in around Peking and Tientsin being totally wrecked by the Boxers. This included the killing of the railway’s recently appointed new Managing-Director, Hsu Ching Cheng (pinyin: Xu Jing-Zheng 許景澄) who was dragged out of his office and executed by pro-Boxer Court hardliners for being “too pro foreign”. Hsu had replaced the previous Director, Hu Yu-fen in early 1899 after a palace coup in late 1898 which saw the Empress Dowager CixiEmpress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi1 , of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a powerful and charismatic figure who became the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years from 1861 to her death in 1908....
suppress the reformist young Guangxu Emperor
Guangxu Emperor
The Guangxu Emperor , born Zaitian of the Aisin-Gioro clan, was the eleventh emperor of the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, under Empress Dowager Cixi's influence, only from 1889 to 1898...
and grab power back into her own hands.
Foreign military administration 1900 - 1902
Following the relief of the besieged foreign legations in Peking by an international allied expeditionary force the Chinese government lost control of what remained of the badly damaged railway system for a two-year period of allied foreign occupation. British and other foreign military units repaired the line between Tientsin and Peking (1900-1902) and the railway was also extended from the Ma Chiu Pu terminus to new Peking stations. The first was adjacent to the Temple of HeavenTemple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest...
and a gap was made in the outer city wall for this purpose next to the Yung Ting Men
Yongdingmen
Yongdingmen was the former front gate of the outer section of Beijing's old city wall. Originally built in 1553, it was torn down in the 1950s to make way for the new road system in Beijing. In 2005, the Yongdingmen was reconstructed at the site of the old city gate...
gatehouse.
A few months later the foreign military authorities decided to take the railway even closer to central Peking and extended the line to near the front gate of the Tartar city at Zhengyangmen as well as the addition of a branch line eastwards to Tongzhou. Also during this period of foreign military control a small port was developed at Qinhuangdao
Qinhuangdao
Qinhuangdao is a port city in northeastern Hebei province of North China. It is about 300 km east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea....
with a six mile branch line joining the main line a few miles southwest of Shan Hai Kuan at Tangho .This port, which had been used for landing allied military personnel and supplies, was later turned over to and further developed by the Chinese Engineering & Mining Co.
For two years (1900-1902) the railway was placed under the overall command of a British army “Royal Engineers” contingent which used the name “British Railway Administration” (BRA) for the purposes of operating the line as far north as Shan Hai Kuan. From this point the Russians retained control of the line northwards until the whole line was handed back to the Imperial Chinese authorities on 29 September 1902. During the BRA period the railway operated a travelling post office train and a special overprinted Chinese postal stamp was introduced for mailing letters carried by the BRA’s express mail trains.
Return to Chinese control 1902
After civilian control of the railway was resumed in late 1902, Claude Kinder was reinstated as Chief Engineer and also given additional and more powerful responsibilities as General Manager. Strongman Yuan ShikaiYuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the second President of the Republic of China , and his short-lived...
had himself appointed as Director-General of Railways and Kinder’s former boss, Hu Yu-fen, who had been ousted in 1899, came back to power as the Assistant Director-General. The Chinese railway administration also had the services of a bright Western-educated new Secretary, returned Chinese Educational Mission student Liang Ju Hao (pinyin: Liang Ruhao 梁汝浩) , better known to Europeans as M.T. Liang.
Reaching Mukden (Shenyang)
During the spring of 1903 construction on the Manchurian extension resumed and by the autumn had reached Hsin Min Tung (Xinming) which initially served as the IRNC’s northern terminus for MukdenShenyang
Shenyang , or Mukden , is the capital and largest city of Liaoning Province in Northeast China. Currently holding sub-provincial administrative status, the city was once known as Shengjing or Fengtianfu...
(Shenyang). During the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
of 1904-5 the Japanese laid a military narrow gauge line from Hsin Min Tung to Mukden in their bid to oust the Russians. In 1907 this extension was purchased by Imperial Railways of North China and in 1909 the line up-graded to standard gauge with Japanese assistance. The IRNC terminus was later moved to Mukden proper and eventually shared the impressive Shenyang railway terminus which was constructed 1909-1910 by the Japanese South Manchuria Railway. By this time the railway was generally referred to as the ‘Peking-Mukden Railway’
Claude William Kinder 1852 - 1936 (Engineer-in-Chief)
It is interesting to note that Claude William Kinder does not receive very much mention in Chinese historic sources, perhaps because of China’s intense sensitivity to the part played by foreigners in China during this period. Kinder, however, played a crucial role in the early development of this first railway. He detested the power struggles and political squabbles between the numerous railway’s directors that he worked under but from the point of view of being a reliable and steady man at the helm on the ground, he got on with the job of building and operating the railway while his superiors jostled for power and “played musical chairs”. Kinder worked for the Chinese railway for 31 years as Engineer-in-Chief and also later General Manager of the progressively developing IRNC before resigning in May 1909 following a difference of opinion with a new Director-General.Hu Yu-fen, with whom Kinder had in later years enjoyed a cordial relationship, died in 1906 and this led to the appointment in 1907 of a Yuan Shi Kai’s protégé, Liang Shi Yi as the head of a newly created Chief Railway Bureau. Liang in turn appointed independent directors for each of China’s different railway lines, which included the IRNC. Within months Kinder had huge differences of opinion with Liang and in particular over the engagement and dismissal of foreign engineers. Unable to reconcile these differences, Kinder submitted his resignation in October 1908 following the termination of three foreign engineers without Liang even consulting Kinder. Kinder left China on retirement in 1909 and never returned.
Kinder was appointed C.M.G. by the British in 1900 and in 1905 was created a “Mandarin of the Red Button” (Chinese Official Rank of the Second Class) for meritorious service by the Imperial Chinese Government. He was also awarded the “Order of the Double Dragon” (Shuang long bao xing 雙龍寶星s: 双龙宝星). In a display of growing local nationalism, Liang also snubbed Kinder’s recommendation for his Deputy Chief Engineer (Alex Cox) to be promoted as his replacement and chose instead Englishman A. Harvey Bellingham who was then Municipal Engineer for Tientsin. Bellingham, however, died suddenly before taking up the appointment, whereupon Liang leap-frogged a more junior engineer over the head of Cox, as a continuing snub to Kinder.
There was much public criticism in the foreign press about Kinder’s supposedly shabby treatment by Liang, and Kinder retired to England a bitter man having been given no customary “golden handshake” for thirty years service. He was also denied payment for some 18 months in unpaid leave pay accumulated over many years. He was eventually offered a compensatory position of engineering adviser, resident in England but declined the offer. He died in Churt, England on August 9, 1935. The railway that Kinder and Tong Kong Sing had started however continued to prosper and after the fall of the Imperial Qing dynasty in 1911, the railway formed part of “Chinese National Railways”