The Beijing–Harbin railway, or the Jingha Railway (), is the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

that connects

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 ...

with

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

, the capital of Heilongjiang Province. It spans . It is a very prominent route in the provinces of

northeastern China Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The regi ...

History

Construction of the section between Tangshan and

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 ...

began in 1881 as the Kaiping Tramway. This section is the second-oldest railway in China and the oldest still in use. (The oldest railway in China was the Woosung Railway in Shanghai, built in 1876 but dismantled and removed to Taiwan the next year.) Later this section was extended west to

and east to Shanhaiguan. It was further extended to the east and reached Mukden (modern

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 ...

) in Fengtian province (modern

Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

) by 1912. The railway operated under or was known by several names, including: * the Imperial Railroad of North China, * the Guanneiwai Railway (literally "Shanhaiguan Inner & Outer Railway"), * the Jingfeng Railway, or Peking−Mukden Railway in English, from August 1907 to 1928, * the Pingfeng Railway, or Peiping−Mukden Railway in English, from 1928 to April 1929, * the Beining Railway, from April 1929 to 1932. Under the late Qing and during the early

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

, it was administered by and provided much of the revenue for the Ministry of Posts and Communications. It is now administered by the Ministry of Railways for the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The section from

used to be a part of the South Manchuria branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway built by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

from 1898 to 1902. Later, the section from

Changchun Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jilin, Jilin Province, China, on the Songliao Plain. Changchun is administered as a , comprising seven districts, one county and three county-level cities. At the 2020 census of China, Changchun ha ...

to Shenyang became part of the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railway. There used to be no linking line between the Beining Railway and the South Manchuria Railway. A bridge was built for the South Manchuria Railway to cross the Beining Railway. The Huanggutun Incident took place on June 4, 1928 right at this bridge, several kilometres east of the Huanggutun railway station on the Beining Railway. After the Japanese occupation of

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

and the subsequent establishment of the

puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its ord ...

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...

, the section of the line east of Shanhaiguan - being within the territory of Manchukuo – was separated from the Beining Railway, becoming the Fengshan Line of the Manchukuo National Railway. In the Japanese-occupied territory under the authority of the collaborationist Provisional Government of the Republic of China, a new company was set up to manage railways and bus transportation in northern China (excluding the puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang). Called the North China Transportation Company, it was formed in 1938 through the nationalisation of all railways in the territory of the Provisional Government, including the Beining Railway. During the existence of the NCTC, the truncated Beining Line was known as the Beishan Line (from its termini, ''Bei''jing and ''Shan''haiguan). The NCTC was liquidated after Japan's defeat in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

, and its operations were taken over by the Republic of China Railway in 1945; this became the

China Railway China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., doing business as China Railway (CR), is the national passenger and freight railroad corporation of the China, People's Republic of China. China Railway operates passenger and freight Rail transport in Chi ...

after the establishment of the

in 1949. After 1949, the Beining Railway, the Shenyang−Changchun section of the South Manchuria Railway's Renkyō Line, and the Manchukuo National Railway's Changchun–Harbin Jingbin Line were merged and named the Jingha Railway. Before 2007, the Beijing–Harbin railway shared the route with the

Beijing–Shanghai railway The Beijing–Shanghai railway or Jinghu railway () is a railway line between Beijing and Shanghai. The line has a total length of and connects the municipalities of Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai, as well as the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, ...

from

, and then to Qinhuangdao then continuing to

. The railway was merged with the Beijing–Qinhuangdao railway, bypassing

. The remaining section between Tianjin and Qinhuangdao was renamed into the Tianjin–Shanhaiguan railway.

Current status

As of December 31, 2006, it uses the Beijing–Qinhuangdao railway, the Qinhuangdao–Shenyang high-speed railway, and the Shenyang-Harbin portion of the Harbin–Dalian railway.

Important cities en route

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: Tangshan, Qinhuangdao *

Province: Huludao, Jinzhou,

, Tieling *

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 ...

Province: Siping,

* Heilongjiang Province:

Mileage

References

External links