A Study On Tsinpu Railway(1898-1937)

The study of modern China’s railway history should concentrate on the history of railway lines,which should incorporate the proposal, planning, construction, operation, management and effect of therailway lines. From these fundamental aspects, we can take a step further to discover basic problems inthe development of modern China’s railway, and therefore reveal the basic patterns of modern railwayconstructions and transportations. The Tsinpu Railway, for instance, can be adopted as a valuablesubject to a case study of rail lines history by searchers and historians.Tsinpu Railway was one of the oldest modern China’s long-distance trunk lines. The constructionof Tsinpu Railway was proposed throughout years by high-ranked Qing officials, including LiHongzhang, Liu Mingchuan, Zeng Jize, Yuan Shikai and Yung Wing. Its lines were remapped constantly,from Jing’qing, Jing’zhen, Tsin’zhen, Tsin’gu to finally Tsinpu. In1898, the Qing government’s consentto the proposal of Tsinpu Railway caused strong interferences from Britain, Germany, and Russia. In1899, China initially signed the <The Brief Contract of Tsin’zhen Railway Loan> with Britain andGermany. Then the contract had been deserted for a decade until China signed with a British and aGerman companies on <The Contract of Tian’jin to Pu’kou Railway Loan>in January1908. As aresult, the south end point was changed to Pukou and China received almost a full management of therailway. In the same year, Lv Haihuan was appointed the chief Duban (the highest-ranking official in thesupervisory system in the Qing Dynasty), who set the headquarter in Peking for preparation. The line,divided into the South and North sections, with individual administrative quarters, started constructionon the railway respectively in June1908and January1909. En route, the rail line was extended from theoriginally-designed three provinces Ji, Lu and Su to the four provinces with an additional the provinceWan. In December1912, upon the completion on Yellow River Bridge, the project of Tsinpu Railwaywas completed. During the planning and construction of Tsinpu Railway, the influence of foreigncountries, the regional strength and the non-governmental force could not be neglected. They also play adetermining role in the signing of the agreements and the site selection of rail lines.During the operation of Tsinpu Railway, the management body and titles changed constantly. In theaspect of operation, the railway focused on the construction and maintenance of its facilities. The LanGang (Blue Steel) train for passenger transportation had reached world’s advanced level. The Railwayalso played an important role inSun Yat-sen’s regime and mausoleum tasks. Moreover, it also achieved aphenomenal effect in the military field. From its overall traffic volume, we could find that its role offreight was more important than that of passenger transportation. Its passenger-kilometers rates were above national average. Also the Tsinpu Railway had constantly suffered from exorbitant taxes andlevies, banditry, natural disasters, and military activities during operation. In the aspect of management,the railway focused on establishing and perfecting its rules and regulations on operation, passenger andfreight transportation. It gradually evolved into a system of “internal management by specialization, andrail line organizations by part”. The Railway Bureau paid more attention to employee selections andtrainings, employee welfare, promotion and reward policies. It also built affiliated hospitals, KMT partybranches and rotary schools. In1930s, the level of management and operation was above nationalaverage. Although regulations and policies were not implemented completely and these regulations andpolices themselves were not perfect, the will of chief officers heavily influenced decisions. However, ina long run, these regulations and policies created a rational environment for railway operations, andprovided a limited freedom for railway development.The Tsinpu Railway connected Tianjin, the northern economic center and Shanghai, the nationaleconomic center, with the four provinces, Ji, Lu, Su and Wan, along the line, which formed a newsystem of transportation with the traditional transportation systems and other railways,. The Railwaymade a great contribution to coal productions along the line, the emergence of the flour industry and thereconstruction of commercial centers. It also brought drastic changes to Tianjin’s commercial lands, andintroduced new local commercial centers such as, Jinan, Xuzhou, and Bengbu. On the other hand,Zhenjiang experienced its local economic recessions. Noticeably, the rural agricultural developmentbecame more market orientated and the villagers started to gain more insight in their values. Thereforemore and more rural people began to search for jobs and livings outside their villages. This railway hadbenefited regional collaboration, but some social problems such as smuggling and banditry were stillcommon. Modern military conflicts also prevalently occurred along this rail line, which discouragedsocial development. Various factors led to the social transformations along the line thus, the railwayshould not be the only to blame.Tsinpu Railway has an important strategic position. Multiple forces congregate along the line,and pay close attention to the construction, operation and management of the railway. Tsinpu Railway’simpact on these regions results from a combination of locations, political interests, historical andcultural traditions. Those factors determine its complexity of the railway construction, operation andmanagement, and limit its influence on regions along the lines. The concentration on the social effectscaused by railway construction, operation and management is the next pivotal field in the study ofChina’s Railway history and Rail Line history.