The development history of trains and railways in China
In the Qing Dynasty 150 years ago, the railway was regarded by the Qing people as a "wonderful technology" that destroyed Feng Shui. Now, the "lifeline of the national economy" has embarked on unprecedented leap-forward development. From the 0.5-kilometer "exhibition railway" to the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" railway transportation network, from the "Dragon" locomotive to the CRH380A high-speed EMU train with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the history of China's railway development has witnessed a The country has undergone tremendous changes in a century.
In the 19th century, China became the third Asian country to build railways after Japan and India. In 1875, the British laid the 14.5-kilometer-long Wusong Railway in Shanghai, becoming China's first operating railway. Chinese people who saw trains for the first time were full of fear of this new thing. Despite this, the "Westernization" Qing government officials influenced by the idea of "learning from the barbarians and developing skills to govern the barbarians" were forced to accept the construction of railways. In 1881, they built the first government-run railway advocated by the Qing government: the Tangxu Railway .
The first train in China was modeled after the famous British steam locomotive "Rocket" by the wife of the chief engineer of the Tangxu Railway at that time, and named it "China Rocket". Because Chinese workers carved a dragon on each side of the locomotive, it was called the "Dragon" locomotive.
After the invasion of the Eight-Power Allied Forces, domestic calls for protecting road rights and building self-built railways became louder and louder. The Qing government finally decided to build the first railway designed and constructed entirely by the Chinese themselves - the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. . The railway was designed and constructed by railway engineering expert Zhan Tianyou. As the chief engineer of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, Zhan Tianyou creatively used the "herringbone" railway to enable trains to pass on steep slopes in mountainous areas.
In May 1911, the Qing government announced the policy of "state-owned railways" and nationalized the privatized Sichuan-Hankong and Guangdong-Hankong Railways. This move aroused opposition from all walks of life in Sichuan, which set off a massive road protection movement. On October 10, revolutionaries in the Huguang area took advantage of the lack of troops in Wuhan caused by the Qing government sending troops to Sichuan to suppress the uprising, and launched the Wuchang Uprising, which led to the establishment of the Republic of China and the end of the feudal monarchy.
In 1912, the Republic of China was proclaimed. Sun Yat-sen, the interim president of the Republic of China, proposed a grand and comprehensive railway construction plan and designed three main lines connecting the country with a total length of 200,000 kilometers. In the subsequent "Fourth Plan" of the "Industrial Plan", Sun Yat-sen further elaborated and designed five major railway lines throughout the country, which were subdivided into the central railway system, the southeastern railway system, and the expanded northwest railway system.
During the Republic of China, China, Japan and the Soviet Union competed for the rights and interests of the Eastern Railway in the Northeast, which also showed the twists and turns of China's railway development from another aspect. The Middle East Railway was originally a section of railway built by Tsarist Russia in Northeast China. The railway was first controlled by Russia. After the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922, it was changed to the control of the Sino-Soviet Communist Party. In 1929, Zhang Xueliang tried to use force to take back the China Eastern Railway, but the Northeast Army was defeated by the Soviet Red Army. In the 1930s, after Japan invaded Northeast China, the Soviet Union quickly sold the railway to Manchukuo. After 1945, the Soviet Union regained control and handed it over to the Chinese government after liberation.
In 1937, the Qiantang River Bridge, the first double-decker railway and highway bridge designed and built by my country, was completed. The Qianjiang Bridge spans the Qiantang River and is an important transportation artery connecting the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo and Zhejiang-Jiangxi railways. The bridge was designed and built by Dr. Mao Yisheng, a contemporary bridge expert. However, less than two months after completion, the city of Hangzhou was captured by the Japanese army. In order to cut off the transportation hub, Mao Yisheng had to personally blow up the bridge, which took three years to complete. Due to frequent wars and the influence of external forces during the Republic of China, China's railways have been developing slowly during this period.
In the early 1950s, the New China government decided to fill the railway gap in the western region and began to build the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway from Chengdu to Chongqing. Construction started in June 1950 and opened to traffic in June 1952. It became the first railway built after liberation. The first railway.
The Baoji-Chengdu Railway starts from Baoji, Shaanxi Province in the north, and reaches Chengdu, Sichuan Province in the south. It connects with the Chengdu-Chongqing and Chengdu-Kunming lines. It has a total length of 669 kilometers. It is the first railway trunk line connecting the northwest and southwest. It is also the first railway to break through the "difficult road to Shu".
The Baocheng-Chengdu Railway started construction in Chengdu on July 1, 1952, and was completed and opened to traffic in 1958. The railway electrification project was completed in July 1975, becoming the first electrified railway in the country.
The Chengdu-Kunming Railway runs from Chengdu, Sichuan Province to Kunming, Yunnan Province, with a total length of 1,100 kilometers. It was originally a key project in the construction of the third line of national defense. Construction started in July 1958 and was stopped after 61 kilometers of repairs. Work resumed in August 1964, was suspended again after the start of the "Cultural Revolution", and was fully completed on July 1, 1970. The Chengdu-Kunming Railway project is so arduous and huge that it is rare in the world. The total extension of bridges and tunnels along the entire line accounts for 41.6% of the line length. In some areas, there is no place to set up stations, so station lines have to be built on bridges or in tunnels. Among the 122 stations on the entire line, there are 41 such stations. This arduous and magnificent project won the "Special Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress" awarded by the state. The train in the picture is passing through the Samulada Tunnel, the longest tunnel on the Chengdu-Kunming Railway and the highest altitude tunnel.
Due to the extremely difficult construction of the Chengdu-Kunming Railway and the limitations of the construction conditions at that time, a large number of railway soldiers died on the construction site during the construction period. Regarding the number of railway soldiers who died, various data vary, and there are no authoritative statistics so far. But you can still see many martyrs’ cemeteries along the Chengdu-Kunming Railway.
The Longhai Railway is a main railway line in China from Lianyungang in Jiangsu to Lanzhou in Gansu. Construction started in 1905. After more than 40 years of segmented construction, the entire line was completed in 1952. The current total length is 1,759 km. km, it is a Class I double-track electrified line. The Longhai Railway is the most important railway line running through the east, middle and west of China. It is also an important part of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge from Lianyungang in China on the Pacific to Rotterdam in the Netherlands on the Atlantic.
The Daqin Railway was built from 1985 to 1997. It is China’s only dedicated coal transportation railway and the first heavy-haul unit railway in China. The railway runs from Datong City, Shanxi Province to Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, running through Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin. The total length is 653 kilometers. On average, a coal train roars past in less than 15 minutes, transporting tens of thousands of tons of coal. It is shipped to Qinhuangdao Port hundreds of kilometers away for shipment to the south.
The Beijing-Kowloon Railway, also known as the Beijing-Kowloon Line, is a railway from Beijing to Shenzhen, Guangdong. It starts from Beijing West Railway Station, ends at Shenzhen Railway Station, then passes through the East Rail Line in Hong Kong, and ends in Kowloon. (Hung Hom) Station. Construction of various sections of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway began in 1994, and on September 1, 1996, the entire Beijing-Kowloon Railway was opened ahead of schedule.
On October 12, 2003, the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Railway was officially put into operation as China's first passenger dedicated railway. The design speed of the dedicated railway is 200 kilometers per hour, with a maximum speed of 300 kilometers per hour.
On April 27, 2006, Shanghai Maglev completed its two-year trial operation and officially entered into operation. This is the world's first maglev train demonstration line put into commercial operation, with a total length of 29.863 kilometers. Different from ordinary ground trains, maglev trains use the principle of "same-sex repels and opposite-sex attract" magnets to completely detach the train from the track and travel in suspension, becoming a "wheelless" train. It takes 14 minutes to travel between downtown Shanghai and Pudong Airport.
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a railway from Xining City, Qinghai Province to Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, with a total length of 1,956 kilometers. It is the highest plateau railway with the longest line in the world. China overcame the world-wide problem of permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during construction and successfully opened it to traffic on July 1, 2006. The picture shows local people welcoming the "Qing 1" train from Golmud to Tibet.
In 2007, China implemented the sixth major railway speed increase. For the first time, China launched large-scale speed increases on major speed-increasing trunk lines (such as the Beijing-Shanghai Line, Beijing-Guangzhou Line, Beijing-Harbin Line, Jiaoji Line, etc.) The China Railway High Speed (CRH) EMU trains with a length of 200 to 250 kilometers have reached the current advanced level of speed-upgrading reconstruction of existing lines in the world.
In 2007, EMUs entered Beijing Station and Xingcheng Station.
In 2008, China had the first high-speed railway with a speed of over 300 kilometers per hour, the Beijing-Tianjin intercity railway. In 2009, it also had the world's longest-built high-speed railway with the highest operating speed - the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway. — Wuhan-Guangzhou Passenger Dedicated Line.
On June 30, 2011, the Beijing-Shanghai Railway will begin official operation. As of January 2011, China has built 13 high-speed rail lines with a total operating mileage of 8,358 kilometers.
Since 1997, China's railways have experienced six major speed increases. With the rapid development of high-speed railways, train speeds have generally been greatly improved. At the same time, China's railway operating mileage will increase from the current 80,000 kilometers to more than 110,000 kilometers, and the electrification rate and double-tracking rate will both reach more than 50. On July 1, 2009, the Yongzhou-Yulin section of the Luozhan Railway was officially opened, marking the realization of the main framework of China's "eight vertical and eight horizontal" railway network. By 2015, my country's railway operating mileage will reach more than 120,000 kilometers, including more than 16,000 kilometers of high-speed railways. With high-speed railways as the skeleton, a high-speed railway network with a total scale of 50,000 kilometers will be basically completed.