Lutai Canal
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The first railway to be built and survive in China was the Kaiping (開平) colliery tramway located at
Tangshan Tangshan ( zh, c=唐山 , p=Tángshān) is a coastal, industrial prefecture-level city in the northeast of Hebei province. It is located in the eastern part of Hebei Province and the northeastern part of the North China Plain. It is located in t ...
in
Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...
province. However, this was not the very first railway in China. An earlier attempt to introduce railways had been made in 1876 when the short
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
to
Wusong Wusong, Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Woosung, is a subdistrict of Baoshan District, Shanghai, Baoshan in northern Shanghai. Prior to the city's expansion, it was a separate port town located down the Huangpu River from Shanghai' ...
narrow gauge line known as the "
Woosung Road Company The Woosung railway ()Also Wusong Road or Woo Sung RailwayIt is sometimes also called the Songhu railway, although that name more properly refers to the 1890s railway which ran principally along the same route. was a 19th-century, narrow-gauge p ...
" was built but then pulled up within less than two years because of Chinese government opposition.


History

Cantonese merchant Tong King-sing (唐景星 a.k.a. Tang Ting-shu 唐廷樞) was a Hong Kong Government interpreter who later became Jardine Matheson & Company’s head
comprador A comprador or compradore () is a "person who acts as an agent for foreign organizations engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation." An example of a comprador would be a native manager for a European business house in Eas ...
at Shanghai. In 1878 Tong, who was then Director-General of the
China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company China Merchants Group Limited ( zh, first=s, s=招商局集团, p=Zhaoshangju Jituan) is a state-owned enterprise (SOE) of the People's Republic of China. The company operates under the auspices of the Chinese Ministry of Transport. Founded in ...
, commenced coal mining operations in the
Kaiping Kaiping (), postal map romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized in Cantonese as Hoiping, in local dialect as Hoihen, is a county-level city in Guangdong provinces of China, Province, China. It is located in the western secti ...
district with the backing of the powerful
Viceroy of Zhili The Viceroy of Zhili, officially in Chinese as the Governor-General of the Directly Subordinate Province and Other Local Areas, in Charge of Military Affairs, Food and Wages, Management of Rivers and Governor Affairs, was one of eight regional ...
Li Hongzhang Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi ( zh, t=李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; February 15, 1823 – November 7, 1901) was a Chinese statesman, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in importan ...
.Ellesworth Carlson: “The Kaiping Mines 1877-1912”, Harvard Univ. Press, 1957. .Linda Pomerantz-Zhang: “Wu Tingfang (1842-1922) Reform and Modernization in Modern Chinese History", Hong Kong University Press, 1992. The first shaft was sunk at Tongshan in 1879 by the new
Chinese Engineering and Mining Company The Chinese Engineering and Mining Company, Limited, was established with foreign capital around 1879 to mine coal for the steamships of the Chinese Merchants' Steam Navigation Company and the Imperial Chinese Navy. English mining engineer Robe ...
(CEMC) under the direction of English mining engineer Robert Reginald Burnett, MICE. To transport coal from the mine to ships on the river at Beitang entailed carrying it a distance of nearly 30 miles; Tong King Sing attempted to gain permission to build a railway for this purpose, but was not able .Claude William Kinder: “Railways and Collieries of North China” in: Minutes of Proceedings, Institution of Civil Engineers vol. ciii 1890/91 Paper No.2474


The Lutai Canal

Initially a
canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...
was constructed from Lutai on the river to Hsukochuang the furthest point that the canal could physically extend. The CEMC's Managing Director, Tong, eventually received permission for the last seven miles to the Tongshan colliery to be covered by a mule-pulled “tramway”, and English civil engineer Claude William Kinder was employed for its construction, which was completed in 1881. Kinder insisted on building the tramway to the international
Standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
of , to make sure the tramway could be turned into a full railway. He also set about constructing a steam locomotive using the boiler and other parts from a portable steam winding engine borrowed from the colliery. After word had leaked out about its construction, the engine had to be concealed for several weeks until Viceroy Li Hung Chang gave word for the construction to continue. The result of Kinder's efforts came to fruition on 9 June 1881 when the home-made
2-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and no trailing wheels. In most of North America it b ...
tank engine christened “
Rocket of China The Rocket of China () was one of the earliest steam locomotives built by Chinese railways, and is sometimes considered the first domestically-built steam locomotive in China. Because of the metal dragon pattern inlaid on the body of the locomoti ...
” entered service on the tramway.Percy Horace Kent: “Railway Enterprise in China”, London, 1907


The first imported locomotives

The introduction of “Rocket” was highly successful and in June 1882 two
0-6-0 is the Whyte notation designation for steam locomotives with a wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. Historically, this was the most common wheel arrangement used o ...
tank locomotives were ordered from Robert Stephenson & Co.,
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
. They arrived in October and were given running numbers 2 and 3. These were the first two standard gauge locomotives imported into China. While some sources claim that an
0-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...
engine numbered “0” now preserved in the Beijing Locomotive Museum was the first engine imported into China, this is unlikely to be accurate.


The first extension to Lutai

While the Kaiping mine railway maintained operations, the Imperial Court's opposition to railway development in China prevented any further development for several years. But because the canal would become covered with ice during the winter months, the mining company succeeded in 1886 in gaining permission to extend the tramway all the way to Lutai. The extension was carried out by a newly formed Kaiping Railway Company (''Kaiping Tiehlu Gongsi'' 開平鐵路公司 s:开平铁路公司), separately funded from the mining company, chaired by the Tientsin Taotai (''Tianjin daotai'' 天津 道台) Chou Fu (''Zhou Fu'' 周馥). The managing director was
Wu Tingfang Wu Ting-fang (; 30 July 184223 June 1922) was a Chinese calligrapher, diplomat, lawyer, politician, and writer who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and briefly as Acting Premier during the early years of the Republic of China. He was als ...
, who had studied law in England and was also interpreter and secretary to Li Hung Chang. Assisted by the young American-educated student engineer (a
Yung Wing Yung Wing (; November 17, 1828April 21, 1912) was a Chinese-American diplomat and businessman. In 1854, he became the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, Yale College. He was involved in business transactions between C ...
mission student), Kwang King Yang (Kuang Jingyang 鄺景揚 s: 邝景扬 ) also known as K.Y. Kwong and
Kuang Sunmou image:Kuang Sunmou.jpg, 150px Kuang SunmouChinese language, Chinese: traditional characters, t , simplified characters, s , pinyin, p ''Kuàng Sūnmóu'', Wade-Giles, w K'uang Sun-mou. or K.Y. KwongChinese language, Chinese: Wade-Giles, w Kwong Kian ...
, Kinder supervised the building of the extension which was completed in April 1887. Imported German
Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...
rails were used, as well as a ten-wheeled
2-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Prairie. Overview The maj ...
saddle-tank locomotive from the
Grant Locomotive Works Grant Locomotive Works was an American manufacturer of steam railway locomotives from 1867 to 1895, first in Paterson, New Jersey, and then in Chicago. The company built about 1,888 locomotives. Predecessors In 1842, Samuel Smith, Abram Collier, ...
of New Jersey (No.4), and forty 10-ton coal wagons.


Second extension to Dagu and Tianjin

Soon afterward, Viceroy Li pressed for a further extension to Beitang and Taku for military purposes. Kinder was called upon to survey the route. Li had to overcome opposition in the Imperial Court but gained sanction for the line to be extended 50 miles to
Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...
. Kinder, as Chief Engineer of the now newly named China Railway Company, was then permitted to secure the services of several more foreign engineers which included Resident Engineers A.W.H. Bellingham and W. Watson. The whole project was completed within fourteen months, with limited train services commencing in August 1888.“China’s First Railway - The Imperial Railways of North China 1880-1911” by A.L. Rosembaum, (unpublished Yale thesis 1972)> This period of railway development was not smooth sailing, and there was continued opposition to the railway on a number of fronts. At various times there were organized riots against the railway and in one instance thousands of dollars worth of damage was done to mining equipment at the Tongshan colliery when a violent feud erupted between Cantonese and northern Chinese workers.Extracts from the personal diary of William Bulmer, 1881-1884 (who was employed by CE&MC at Tangshan as a boiler maker) from “ P. A. Crush Chinese Railway Collection”, Hong Kong Railway Society Another severe blow was China's first-recorded serious train accident on 25 March 1889 when there was a head-on collision between two trains at Chung Liang Cheng ('' Junliangcheng'' 軍糧城 s: 军粮城). English train driver, M. Jarvis, had waited a long time in the station passing loop and impatiently entered the next section of single track before the arrival of an oncoming train. As a result of the collision, four carriages caught fire and several injured people were burned alive. Driver Dawson survived but the offending driver, Jarvis, one fireman and seven passengers died in the crash, while more died several days later from their burns and injuries. It was alleged by junior staff that Jarvis had been drinking heavily before the crash. Further troubles came weeks later, in April 1888, when a newly completed steel bridge across the Pei Ho river (today's Haihe 海河) in the heart of Tientsin, connecting with the foreign settlements, caused unrest with local boatmen fearful that the railway would harm their interests. Li ordered the destruction of the bridge by dynamite, causing the company a loss of £8000 and many months work.


Towards Beijing and Shanhaiguan

Shortly after the completion of the Tientsin section pressure was exerted for permission to build extensions westwards to
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
and northeastwards towards the
Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection agains ...
. Imperial Court opposition prevented the western extension but the northern extension was sanctioned and reached Guye in late 1890, Lanchou in 1892 and
Shanhaiguan The Shanhai Pass () is a major fortified gateway at the eastern end of the Great Wall of China and one of its most crucial fortifications, as the pass commands the narrowest choke point in the strategic Liaoxi Corridor, an elongated coasta ...
in 1893,Institution of Civil Engineers vol. clx 1905 Paper No.3509 : “Railway Construction in North China” by Edward Hulme Rigby BSc and William Orr Leitch AMICE during which period the line was transferred to the control of a newly formed Imperial Chinese Railway Administration. During this period of expansion, Jeme Tien Yow joined the railway company in 1888 as a cadet engineer under Kinder's supervision. Kinder appreciated the talents of this
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
-graduated engineer and Jeme was soon promoted first to resident and then district engineer. In all, Jeme spent 12 years working on various sections of this railway. He later achieved international recognition as the Engineer-in-Chief who built the Imperial Peking-
Kalgan Zhangjiakou (), also known as Kalgan and by several other names, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province in Northern China, bordering Beijing to the southeast, Inner Mongolia to the north and west, and Shanxi to the southwest ...
Railway without any foreign assistance.


Further northwards into Manchuria

Plans to continue the railway North-eastwards beyond Shan Hai Kuan (''Shanhaiguan'') to
Jinzhou Jinzhou (, zh, s= , t=錦州 , p=Jǐnzhōu), formerly Chinchow, is a coastal prefecture-level city in central-west Liaoning province, China. It is a geographically strategic city located in the Liaoxi Corridor, which connects most of the la ...
,
Shenyang Shenyang,; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly known as Fengtian formerly known by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a sub-provincial city in China and the list of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Liaonin ...
and
Jilin ) , image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = View of Heaven Lake , image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_al ...
were prevented by lack of funds and because of war between Japan and China (August 1894 to March 1895). By 1896 the rails had only reached Chung Ho So (pinyin: ''Zhonghesuo'' 中河所), some 40 miles beyond Shan Hai Kuan. China's loss of the war with Japan brought about Li Hung Chang's disgrace and virtual removal from power, and with this came new management. After a short power struggle between rival factions Sheng Hsuan Huai (pinyin:
Sheng Xuanhuai Sheng Xuanhuai (; November 4, 1844 – April 27, 1916) was a Qing dynasty Chinese tycoon, politician, and educator. He founded several major banks and universities and served as Minister of Transportation of the Qing Empire. He was also known as ...
succeeded in gaining control of this new organization and appointed his own supporters to the directorate of whom the most prominent of these was Hu Yu-fen who was appointed Director-General and made responsible for the all sections of the “Northern” Railway and the name evolved yet again in 1897 into “Imperial Railways of North China”


A Peking (Beijing) terminus at Ma Chia Pu (Majiabao)

During the period 1898-9 a British loan of £2,300,000 was negotiated and an issue of bonds raised in London for the purpose of extending this line northwards to Xinmin and a branch line from Koupangtzu to
Yingkou Yingkou ( zh, s=, t=, p=Yíngkǒu) is a coastal prefecture-level city of central southern Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, on the northeastern shore of Liaodong Bay. It is the third-smallest city in Liaoning with a total area of , a ...
. The loan was arranged by the British and Chinese Corporation, a joint venture and front for the
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...
and Jardine Matheson and Company. In spite of objections from the Russians — who were themselves busy grabbing control of Chinese territory in Manchuria (incl. the
Chinese Eastern Railway The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (, , or , ''Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga'' or ''KVZhD''), is the historical name for a railway system in Northeast China (also known as Manchuria). The Russian Empire constructed the line from 1897 ...
) — the line to Chinchou was eventually completed in 1899. Back at the western end of the railway the line had reached Fengtai and shortly afterwards a new Ma Chia Pu terminus outside Peking in 1897 from where a
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
built electric tramway was laid to the city's South Gate, or
Yongdingmen Yongdingmen (), was the former front gate of the outer city of Beijing's old city wall. Originally built in 1553 during Ming Dynasty, it was torn down in the 1950s to make way for the new road system in Beijing. In 2005, the Yongdingmen was reco ...
, which opened for service in 1899.


Boxer Destruction

The next set-back for the railway was the
Boxer Uprising The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious ...
of 1900 which brought a complete halt to railway construction progress and also resulted in large sections of the existing railway in around Peking and Tientsin being totally wrecked by the Boxers. This included the killing of the railway's recently appointed new Managing-Director, Hsu Ching Cheng (pinyin: Xu Jingcheng 許景澄) who was dragged out of his office and executed by pro-Boxer Court hardliners for being “too pro foreign”. Hsu had replaced the previous Director, Hu Yu-fen in early 1899 after a palace coup in late 1898 which saw the
Empress Dowager Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908) was a Manchu noblewoman of the Yehe Nara clan who effectively but periodically controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty as empress dowager and regent for almost 50 ...
suppress the reformist young
Guangxu Emperor The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), also known by his temple name Emperor Dezong of Qing, personal name Zaitian, was the tenth Emperor of China, emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China ...
and grab power back into her own hands.


Foreign military administration 1900 - 1902

Following the relief of the besieged foreign legations in Peking by an international allied expeditionary force the Chinese government lost control of what remained of the badly damaged railway system for a two-year period of allied foreign occupation. British and other foreign military units repaired the line between Tientsin and Peking (1900–1902) and the railway was also extended from the Ma Chiu Pu terminus to new Peking stations. The first was adjacent to the
Temple of Heaven The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial Religious Confucianism, religious Confucian buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperor of China, Emperors of the Ming dynasty, Ming and ...
and a gap was made in the outer city wall for this purpose next to the Yung Ting Men gatehouse. A few months later the foreign military authorities decided to take the railway even closer to central Peking and extended the line to near the front gate of the Tartar city at
Zhengyangmen Qianmen () is the colloquial name for Zhengyangmen (; Manchu language, Manchu: ; Möllendorff:tob šun-i duka, ), a gate in Beijing's historic Beijing city fortifications, city wall. The gate is situated to the south of Tiananmen Square and once ...
as well as the addition of a branch line eastwards to Tongzhou. Also during this period of foreign military control a small port was developed at
Qinhuangdao Qinhuangdao (; zh, s=秦皇岛, link=no) is a port city on the coast of China in northern Hebei. It is administratively a prefecture-level city, about east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea. Its population d ...
with a six-mile branch line joining the main line a few miles southwest of Shan Hai Kuan at Tangho. This port, which had been used for landing allied military personnel and supplies, was later turned over to and further developed by the Chinese Engineering & Mining Co. For two years (1900–1902) the railway was placed under the overall command of a British army “Royal Engineers” contingent which used the name “British Railway Administration” (BRA) for the purposes of operating the line as far north as Shan Hai Kuan. From this point the Russians retained control of the line northwards until the whole line was handed back to the Imperial Chinese authorities on 29 September 1902. During the BRA period the railway operated a travelling post office train and a special overprinted Chinese postal stamp was introduced for mailing letters carried by the BRA's express mail trains.


Return to Chinese control 1902

After civilian control of the railway was resumed in late 1902, Claude Kinder was reinstated as Chief Engineer and also given additional and more powerful responsibilities as General Manager. Strongman
Yuan Shikai Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 18596 June 1916) was a Chinese general and statesman who served as the second provisional president and the first official president of the Republic of China, head of the Beiyang government from 1912 to 1916 and ...
had himself appointed as Director-General of Railways and Kinder's former boss, Hu Yu-fen, who had been ousted in 1899, came back to power as the Assistant Director-General. The Chinese railway administration also had the services of a bright Western-educated new Secretary, returned Chinese Educational Mission student Liang Ju Hao (pinyin: ''Liang Ruhao'' 梁汝浩), better known to Europeans as M.T. Liang.


Reaching Mukden (Shenyang)

During the spring of 1903 construction on the Manchurian extension resumed and by the autumn had reached Hsin Min Tung (Xinming) which initially served as the IRNC's northern terminus for
Mukden Shenyang,; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly known as Fengtian formerly known by its Manchu name Mukden, is a sub-provincial city in China and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. It is the province's most populous city with a p ...
(Shenyang). During the
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
of 1904-5 the Japanese laid a military narrow gauge line from Hsin Min Tung to Mukden in their bid to oust the Russians. In 1907 this extension was purchased by Imperial Railways of North China and in 1909 the line up-graded to standard gauge with Japanese assistance. The IRNC terminus was later moved to Mukden proper and eventually shared the impressive Shenyang railway terminus which was constructed 1909–1910 by the Japanese South Manchuria Railway. By this time the railway was generally referred to as the ‘Peking-Mukden Railway’


Claude William Kinder 1852 - 1936 (Engineer-in-Chief)

Claude William Kinder does not receive very much mention in Chinese historic sources, perhaps because of China's intense sensitivity to the part played by foreigners in China during this period. Kinder, however, played a crucial role in the early development of this first railway. He detested the power struggles and political squabbles between the numerous railway's directors that he worked under but from the point of view of being a reliable and steady man at the helm on the ground, he got on with the job of building and operating the railway while his superiors jostled for power and “played musical chairs”. Kinder worked for the Chinese railway for 31 years as Engineer-in-Chief and also later General Manager of the progressively developing IRNC before resigning in May 1909 following a difference of opinion with a new Director-General. Hu Yu-fen, with whom Kinder had in later years enjoyed a cordial relationship, died in 1906 and this led to the appointment in 1907 of a Yuan Shi Kai's protégé, Liang Shi Yi as the head of a newly created Chief Railway Bureau. Liang in turn appointed independent directors for each of China's different railway lines, which included the IRNC. Within months Kinder had huge differences of opinion with Liang and in particular over the engagement and dismissal of foreign engineers. Unable to reconcile these differences, Kinder submitted his resignation in October 1908 following the termination of three foreign engineers without Liang even consulting Kinder. Kinder left China on retirement in 1909 and never returned.Hong Kong Railway Society Website - Members Corner - Feature Articles - " Kaiping Tramway History - China's Second First Railway" by Peter Crush http://www.hkrs.org.hk/index_e.htm (retrieved 12.01.2005, link updated 2009) Kinder was appointed C.M.G. by the British in 1900 and in 1905 was created a “Mandarin of the Red Button” (Chinese Official Rank of the Second Class) for meritorious service by the Imperial Chinese Government. He was also awarded the “Order of the Double Dragon” (Shuang long bao xing 雙龍寶星s: 双龙宝星). In a display of growing local nationalism, Liang also snubbed Kinder's recommendation for his Deputy Chief Engineer (Alex Cox) to be promoted as his replacement and chose instead Englishman A. Harvey Bellingham who was then Municipal Engineer for Tientsin. Bellingham, however, died suddenly before taking up the appointment, whereupon Liang leap-frogged a more junior engineer over the head of Cox, as a continuing snub to Kinder. There was much public criticism in the foreign press about Kinder's supposedly shabby treatment by Liang, and Kinder retired to England a bitter man having been given no customary “golden handshake” for thirty years service. He was also denied payment for some 18 months in unpaid leave pay accumulated over many years. He was eventually offered a compensatory position of engineering adviser, resident in England but declined the offer.FER July 1909 “China’s Ingratitude” He died in Churt, England on August 9, 1935. The railway that Kinder and Tong Kong Sing had started however continued to prosper and after the fall of the Imperial Qing dynasty in 1911, the railway formed part of “Chinese National Railways”


Notes


References


Further reading

* Crush, Peter (2013) “Imperial Railways of North China” – “关内外铁路” 皮特•柯睿思 著. Bilingual in English and Simplified Chinese. Xinhua Publishing House, Beijing
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiping Tramway And Imperial Railways Of North China History of rail transport in China Qing dynasty