History of rail transport in China
[2] The late arrival of railways in China was due both to the lack of industrialization and skeptical attitude of the Qing government.
[2] Although diverse and prominent personages such as Lin Zexu and Taiping rebel Hong Rengan called for the building of railways in China in the mid-19th century, the conservative Qing court considered steam engines to be "clever but useless" contraptions, and resisted the railways, which would "deprive us of defensive barriers, harm our fields and interfere with our feng shui.
In 1865, a British merchant built a 600-meter long narrow gauge railroad outside the Xuanwu Gate in Beijing to demonstrate the technology to the imperial court.
The railway, known as the Woosung Road, ran from the American Concession in the present-day Zhabei District to Woosung in the present-day Baoshan District and was built by the British trading firm, Jardine, Matheson and Co.[6] Construction took place without approval from the Qing government, which had paid 285,000 taels of silver for the railroad[2] and had it dismantled in October 1877.
The railway was backed by the powerful Viceroy of Zhili, Li Hongzhang, who overcame objections from conservative ministers.
[10] The Empress, concerned that the locomotive's noise would disturb the geomancy or fengshui of the imperial city, required the train be pulled by eunuchs instead of steam engine.
The Japanese initially received numerous concessions along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong, and built the Chao Chow and Swatow Railway (1904–06).
The rapid expansion of foreign railroad ownership and operation in China aroused strong public resentment and led to calls for domestic development of railways.
From 1904 to 1907, 15 provincial governments formed their own railway building companies and raised funds by selling shares to citizens and levying taxes.
The nationalization order provoked fierce public opposition that led to the Railway Protection Movement, which contributed to the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution.
Troops sent to Sichuan from neighboring Hubei weakened defenses in Wuhan where revolutionaries launched the Wuchang Uprising.
After founding the Republic of China on January 1, 1912, Dr. Sun Yat-sen agreed to cede the provisional presidency to Yuan Shikai in exchange for the latter's assistance in securing the abdication of Qing court.
By 1948, the number of usable kilometers of rail was estimated at only 8,000 km (4,971 mi) due to the Chinese Civil War.
[14] In 1951, after extensive investment in reconstruction, the Communists, who established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in October 1949, had restored the usable network to about 22,000 km (13,670 mi).
Most of the early reconstruction (about 11,000 km (6,835 mi)) was in Manchuria because Soviet and Japanese occupation there reduced the amount of sabotage between the fighting parties, allowing for quick repairs.
In the 1950s, the government initiated numerous railway building projects to fill in missing links in the country's rail network.
[2] The launch of the Great Leap Forward in 1958 was intended to rapidly expand railway transport, but produced counterproductive results.
[2] This caused trains to backslide on slopes, damage to rolling stock and steam engines to dry boil.
[2] The Sino-Soviet split prompted the leadership to shift railway building toward the "Third Line", in the mountainous regions of the interior, away from the east coast and Soviet border.
[2] Premier Zhou Enlai and other moderate leaders pushed back against leftist-radical management of the railway and operations began to improve in 1969.
[2] From the summer of 1974 to early 1975, railway hubs in Xuzhou, Changsha, Guiyang, and Baotou experienced freight bottlenecks.
After the Cultural Revolution ended and the economic reforms were launched in 1978, the railways were reorganized and rededicated to improving safety, performance, technology and profitability.
[2] After China initiated market-oriented economic reforms in 1978, railway building slowed as state funds were directed toward higher return investments.
Before the 1980s, due to the low labor cost, ease of manufacture, and cheap coal price, steam locomotives dominated the Chinese railways.
[17] As part of an infrastructure upgrade, China opened its first high-speed rail lines in 2007, utilizing trains sourced from Canada, France, Germany, and Japan.
As of 2021, China possesses the world's largest high-speed rail network, with a total operating length of 40,000 kilometers.
