Who built the first railway in China?
1905- 1909 Zhan Tianyou presided over the construction of the first railway in China-the Jing-Zhang railway; The creation of "shaft construction method" and "herringbone" line shocked China and foreign countries.
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The first railway in China
Who is the first one? Historically, there was a dispute between the north and the south of China's first railway. As far as railways are concerned, the first railway in China is a one-mile-long "exhibition railway" outside Xuanwu Gate.
18 14 railways and steam locomotives were born in Britain after the industrial revolution. In order to better realize capital expansion; British businessmen tried their best to publicize the superiority of railways to the Qing government. Moreover, in 1865, a British businessman named Durand built a small railway with a length of only one mile for the "exhibition" outside Xuanwu Gate. In terms of objects, it is indeed the first small railway in China. But it is only for exhibition, and it has no practical use, so it can only be counted as an "exhibit". After this "exhibit" was exhibited, it attracted many audiences. People want to see it because it is novel and has never been seen before. Soon. The Qing rulers ordered the demolition on the grounds that "the viewers were horrified". This "exhibit" is not a real railway.
The first railway in China should be Wusong Railway, and 1876 (leap May 12) was officially opened to traffic on July 3rd. In order to distinguish it from the above-mentioned "exhibition railway" in Beijing, people often add the word "operation" or "operation" after the first article to show the difference.
As early as 1866, the British envoy Wade proposed to the Qing government that the waterway between Wusong and Shanghai was blocked, making it difficult to dredge, making it impossible for large-tonnage ships to dock at Shanghai Port, and requested the construction of a railway from Wusong to Shanghai, so that large-tonnage ships could handle combined transport with Shanghai after docking in Wusong. At this time, the Qing government had doubts about building the railway and did not approve Wade's request. Sixty-seven years later, around 1874, Jardine Matheson, a British businessman in Shanghai, played a trick, claiming to build a "road" from Wusong to Shanghai, organized Wusong Road Company, and with the consent of the Qing government authorities, expropriated land from Wusong from the north of Shanghai Concession. Then, "dig deep ditches along both sides of the road. The road is made of mud, about three feet high, and covered with iron bars."
As for construction workers, most of them use local materials, and many "village workers" are employed, sometimes as few as 2,000. The daily wage per person is about 200 Wen (only equivalent to the price of an inferior car ticket when Wusong Railway was opened to traffic later-the author's note) ". Because I don't know the truth, even "villagers actively participate in it, and there is no resentment. "
However, this happened: an old village woman's land was expropriated. At first, she only thought it was to be used in the requisitioned open space. Unexpectedly, she had to "fold" several trees on her original land during construction. Anyway, the old lady stopped, and the construction was once stopped. The old lady said confidently, "I sell land, not trees." Trees can't be folded because they contribute to feng shui. "When it comes to the word" feng shui ",the workers in the village have stopped, and no one wants to spoil the" feng shui "passed down from generation to generation. When the competent department of the highway company learned of this incident, it was worried that it would make a big mess and affect the project. They quickly informed the construction unit that all trees were not allowed to be folded, and they should be moved to "both sides of the road and fenced" for protection, and promised that "a person would be set up to look after and manage".
Nowadays, along the railways in some places, the custom of planting trees is still followed, and perhaps there is the contribution of this unknown rural old lady! Seeing that this "road" extending from the northern part of the concession to Wusong was almost completed,1At the end of 875, British businessman Wusong Road Company used deception to transport rails and locomotives in the name of "railway fittings". Obviously, this "road" (actually a "railway") was built for the operation of trains, but British businessmen insisted that the railway was built to connect trains, not to say that it was an "iron tool for roads". Later, the Qing government paid a huge price for this.
But some people know the inside story. Feng Mingfu of Baoshan County accidentally discovered that the carrier who assisted British commercial companies to transport paving stones by ship turned out to be the British consul. So he reported the matter and hoped that the Prime Minister's yamen would approve the request to stop work. After hearing the "discussion on stopping work", the British consul still went his own way, "refusing to obey, so the road was still built as usual." Feng Mingfu's request in Baoshan County can only be defeated by the weak Qing government! By the beginning of February of 1876, the track had been laid near Xujiahuayuan.
Because of the particularity of railway construction, people have aroused great curiosity. Don't say that the trains running on the rails in the future are engineering vehicles running on the rails (small trains transporting sleepers and stones). People want to see what it is. According to the then "Shen Bao", not only local people like to watch it, but even people dozens or even hundreds of miles away like to watch it. Thousands of people come by carriage, sedan chair or oriental car every day. Fruit sellers and food stalls also go to railway stations to do business like fairs.
As for the official opening of Wusong Railway (from Shanghai to Jiangwan), it is "considerable" in modern terms. Shen Bao reported on July 4th, 1876, the day after the Wusong Railway was officially opened to traffic: "By one o'clock in the afternoon, most men, women and children are willing to take the second class. In an instant, there was no room on the bus, only those who could afford the tickets and were still waiting for the bus. The train has already left, people are still coming, everyone has never seen it, and I want to try it myself. " To sum up, at that time, "railway tour" had become a major event in people's daily life. Even people who lived in cities almost all the year round did not go out and took their families to visit.
What's the fate?
Regarding the fate of the first railway in China, I think it is more appropriate to describe it as a flash in the pan.
The British finally built the first railway in China and put it into normal operation, so the fare will not be low. At that time, the first-class ticket from Shanghai to Wusong was 1 yuan, the winning ticket was 50 points, and the second-class seat was 200( 1.200 was equivalent to 1 yuan). At that time, the price of rice was only about 2 yuan per stone. In other words, the first-class one-way fare is about half a load of meters, and the same car fare is 1 stone meters. This was a "luxury" consumption at that time. Glittering silver keeps flowing into the pockets of British businessmen.
At this time, the Qing government seemed to wake up: Who owned the railways and trains running on the land of China? So Qing government officials turned to discuss sovereignty with British businessmen. Because railways, like ships, guns and telegrams, are "foreign goods", the Qing government has an instinctive exclusivity. According to their original intention, these unclear things should be rejected. But this railway has been put into operation. Negotiating with the British railway company, people also ignored it, ignoring the Qing government at all.
What should we do?
Finally, I got such an opportunity:1August 3, 876 (Wusong Railway has not been officially put into operation "full moon"), when the train was trying to run on the first section of jiangwan town North Road, it accidentally killed one person, causing great fear among the villagers. It turns out that this black thing will kill people! The Qing government took advantage of the situation and ordered the train to stop. So the representatives of China and Britain held talks on the sovereignty of the first railway in Nanjing. The representative of China proposed to recover sovereignty, while the representative of Britain used various excuses to delay the negotiations. After more than a month's bargaining, the Chinese buyout agreement was finally signed on June 24th 10, stipulating that the British commercial railway company would own the train for another year, that is, from June 1876 10 3 1 to June1877/kloc-0.
It is precisely because of the above reasons that the first railway in China (that is, Wusong to Shanghai downtown) was not fully connected until 1 87665438+February1. On the day when the whole line was officially put into operation, perhaps it was influenced by the Sino-British negotiations, or perhaps it was because of the drizzle in the cold early winter that not many people came to take the train. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, when the first train left, the newspaper recorded that only 100 people from China took the "inferior" carriages, and most of them got off at Yunzaobang Station, but only a dozen people visited Wusong, which was in sharp contrast to the previous sightseeing. On the contrary, Wusong Railway resumed its function as the main means of transportation between Wusong and the urban area. The above situation lasted almost a whole winter until the following spring. There are not enough passengers to go from Shanghai to Wusong by train. Originally, nine carriages plus six carriages were pulled by two locomotives. This railway has also had its best time.
Someone has done such statistics: as of July 1877, 17 years, except for two months when the train was killed, the actual operation was less than 10 months, and passengers 133 1 person had been transported, which was the highest in China at that time.
However, the first railway in China failed to escape the fate of "a flash in the pan", and 1877 10+2 1, the day when the one-year agreement between China and Britain expired, had to be shelved. It was not until 2 1 year later that the China government completely relied on its own financial resources to build the later Songhu Railway on the original site of Wusong Railway.