| In1898, the Qing-government signed the “Jiao Ao Concession Treaty” under theforced power of Germany. Qingdao was occupied by German invaders since then.The construction of Jinan-Qingdao rail line started on the leased territory thereafterand it was completed in1904. Simultaneously, the development of Qingdao port wasmoved forward. The construction of the other line Tijian-Pukou rail was completedin1912. This rail line connected to Jinan-Qingdao rail run across from the south tothe north of Shandong province. The construction of the highway transportationsystem was initiated in1903until the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese war in Shandongprovince. The established highways were mostly built around the Jinan-Qingdao railline. Due to the limited transportation capacity of a far-from-completion highwaynetwork in Shandong province, the conventional waterway transportation did not quitand continued to play an indispensable role in modern Shandong history.Thecombined highway and waterway transportation formed the modern Shandongtransportation network. The interrelationship among the different modes oftransportation is complex; it involved cooperation and competition.The construction of Jinan-Qingdao rail line was completed in1904asaforementioned. It was operated thereafter until1937under three different managerialtime period from Germany, Japanese, and Chinese government. The fundamentalinfrastructure construction of Jinan-Qingdao rail had achieved significant progressover this time period. As a result, the transport capacity of passengers and goodshas been gradually improved. Meanwhile passenger and cargo transportation capacitygradually improved.However, due to the special political, social environment of Shandong provinceand even the whole country of China, Jinan-Qingdao rail line suffered severely fromthe war, tax, debt from Japanese, corruption from management organizations,epidemic and banditry, natural and man-made disasters, and the official andbusinessman’s plunder from both Chinese and foreigners. The combination of all the factors caused a poor operation of Jinan-Qingdao financially.The Jinan-Qingdao rail line was embedded in Shandong province as a moderntransportation mode which is a product of the western civilization. The socialfunctionality of railway was not maximized due to the constraints of modern China’sspecial social and historical background. But this modern transportation tool stillhad profound impacts on many of the following aspects of Shandong regionaleconomic development.With the development of Jinan-Qingdao and Tianjin-Pukou rail lines acrossJinan, the role of Jinan as the political center of Shandong province did not change,but its economical functionality and status has been raised up high. However, notall the medium or small-sized cities neighboring along Jinan-Qingdao rail line aredeveloped towards the right direction. There were many factors affecting thedevelopment trends of an urban area, transportation was merely one of the many.Jiaozhou and its surroundings are close neighbors to Qingdao and Jinan, but due tothe limited regional economic resources and the clustering effects, Jiaozhou suffereda reverse recession with the emerge of Jinan-Qingdao rail and the overly resourceinclination to Qingdao and Jinan. While the tourism industry along theJinan-Qingdao rail line, the rising transportation logistic demands, and the railexhibition at Qingdao demonstrated how transportation impacted the regionaleconomic development significantly.The major motivation to construct the Jinan-Qingdao rail by German was tofacilitate the sale of charcoal from the mid-Shandong province such as Zibo. In fact,the completion of Jinan-Qingdao rail line has revolutionized the way of production,transportation, trade, and coal mining along it. But as Chinese government retrievedthe authority of Jinan-Qingdao railway from Japanese in1922, the coal miningindustry along Jinan-Qingdao rail line and the Jinan-Qingdao railway administrationare separate entities of interests. They have overall cooperation accompanied byconflicts and discordance. Other than that, the discriminative policies fromJinan-Qingdao railway authorities to Chinese coal mines, together with naturaldisasters; Japanese coal’s dumping sale and the lack of capacity from railwaytransportation. To resolve the problem, Shandong and the Jinan-Qingdao railway authorities had to take some measures to promote the development of coal miningindustry along the railways such as establishing eastern Shandong coal ProductionCompany and cooperative marketing company, purchasing the Boshan light railway,adding more vehicles and heavier rails.The regional agricultural economic development in Shandong was deeplyaffected by Jinan-Qingdao railway, this can be seen from the fact the U.S. tobaccowas widely planted in central Shandong province. The commercialization andinternational sales of U.S. tobacco promoted the disintegration of the natural economy,the quality of farmers’ life and rural market economy had been improved in certaintime period. The development of tobacco industry along the railway stimulated thefinancial industry and high-interest service which led to the emergent economicdevelopment of towns along the railway. Unfortunately, this caused the decline ofcrops and its related industries. The farmers along the railway gradually became themember of world’s tobacco market trade system. Once the world’s economyfluctuated, the tobacco prices could fall, tobacco farmers had to bear the tragicconsequences.The peanuts, cotton, cattle and other large items which came from the northern,the southern, the western part of Shandong province, the northern part of Henanprovince, the southern part of Hebei province had been delivered to Ji’nanintermediate market from markets all around, then these products will be transferredto the ultimate market in Qingdao. Finally, these regions were incorporated intoQingdao harbor. These bulk goods followed the sales trajectories which have someintersections with the port of Tianjin and Shanghai. However, the Qingdao Portcompeted with them. While from the major flow direction of goods, the QingdaoPort had obvious superiority over the Tianjin and Shanghai Port. The vast regionhad become the main lands of Qingdao Port for many reasons, but the Jinan-Qingdaorailway and Qingdao harbor played a critical role in this process together with thevarying attractive policies from the both.The Jinan-Qingdao railway and the port of Qingdao are representatives of themodern Shandong transportation system. The trade and market network constructedbased on the transportation system directly caused the development of Shandong regional economy from being strong in the west and weak in the east to being strongin the east and weak in the west since the Ming and Qing dynasties. The overalleconomic map of Shandong province has been transformed fundamentally. Throughthe examples of the port of Qingdao and Jinan-Qingdao railway and its neighboringeconomic transformation, it was not difficult to identify the significant role that themodern transportation modes in the regional economic development. It is also oneof the critical reasons which drive the modern society transformation and progress. |
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