The Guangzhou–Hankou or Yuehan railway is a former railroad in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

which once connected

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

on the

Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-a ...

in the south with

Wuchang Wuchang forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. It is the oldest of the three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, and stood on the ri ...

on the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

in the north. At the Yangtze, the railway carriages were ferried to

Hankou Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers wher ...

, which then connected to the Beijing–Hankou railway. It was constructed from 1900 to 1936 and, from their former romanizations, was known at the time as the . The completion of the

Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge The Wuhan Yangtze Great Bridge (), commonly known as Wuhan First Yangtze Bridge, is a double-deck road and rail bridge across the Yangtze River in Wuhan, in Central China. At its completion in 1957, the bridge was the easternmost crossing of ...

in 1957 finally linked the two lines into a single contiguous railway and its former track now forms the southern leg of the Beijing–Guangzhou railway.

History

In 1897, a concession for the Beijing–Hankou railway was awarded to a Belgian consortium backed by French financing. The British were then the dominant foreign power in China, and the Belgian concession would keep the important route out of British hands. To prevent the French from controlling the entire route between Beijing and Guangzhou, the Chinese government actively sought American involvement in the Guangzhou–Hankou railway. A concession for the southern railway was awarded to the

American China Development Company The American China Development Company was a company that aimed to gain railway, mining, and other industrial concessions in China. Led by former Ohio senator and railway lawyer, Calvin Brice ,Hunt, Michael H. ''The Making of a Special Relationshi ...

in 1898. Construction on the project began in 1900, with the southern terminus on the east bank of the Pearl River. The branch line to Sanshui ("Samshui") via

Foshan Foshan (, ), alternately romanized as Fatshan, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. The entire prefecture covers and had a population of 9,498,863 as of the 2020 census. The city is part of the western side of the ...

("Fatshan") was constructed westward from the west bank of the Pearl from 1902 to 1904. A diplomatic crisis erupted when it was discovered that a Belgian consortium had purchased a controlling interest in the American China Development Company. This subverted the original intention of awarding different railway lines to different foreign powers. The American financier

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

bought a large stake in the company in November 1904, but the concession was cancelled on November 19, 1904. Morgan demanded in compensation but settled for million, representing

treble damages In United States law, treble damages is a term that indicates that a statute permits a court to triple the amount of the actual/compensatory damages to be awarded to a prevailing plaintiff. Treble damages are a multiple of, and not an addition to ...

for the already spent on the construction of the railway, plus to redeem the concession. The railway was completed in 1936.

References

Railway lines in China Rail transport in Guangdong Rail transport in Hubei Rail transport in Hunan Railway lines opened in 1936 1936 establishments in China {{PRChina-rail-transport-stub

History

See also

References