Peking–Mukden Railway () was a 19th-century steam powered trunkline connecting Peking (Beijing) and Mukden (former name of Shenyang) through Tianjin, northeastern Hebei, and southwestern Liaoning; it was a crucial railway in North China and Northeast China.
The history of the railway can date back to Kaiping Tramway (often known as Tangshan–Xugezhuang Railway in Chinese) completed in 1881, which became PMR after several extensions in the next 31 years. It was significant and influential in the Railway development and even transportation histories in China since it was the first trunk line being built and operated successfully. Although Woosung Road and had been built years before PMR, they were neither built for practical use nor in operation for more than a year.
Timeline The timeline of how Kaiping Tramway was transformed into the trunkline PMR was shown below. TimeIncidents or changes1880The idea of Kaiping Tramway was proposed for the first timeMay 1881The construction of Kaiping Tramway startedNovember 1881The construction of Kaiping Tramway completedFeb 1887The administrative of Imperial Chinese Navy proposed a railway from to Shanhai PassAugust 1887Kaiping Tramway was extended to Lutai and renamed Tangshan–Lutai RailwayAugust 1888Tangshan–Lutai Railway was extended to Dagu and renamed Tangshan–Tianjin Railway1888Tianjin–Tongzhou Railway was first proposed1889Implementation of the Tianjin–Tongzhou Railway plan was halted1890Tangshan–Tianjin Railway was extended to Guye and renamed as Guye–Tianjin Railway1891Kwantung Railway Plan was approved1894Guye-Tianjin railway was extended to Shanhai Pass and renamed as Tianjin–Yu Pass Railway
(aka. Imperial Railway of North China)Tianjin-Yu Pass Railway was extended to Suizhong County1895The construction of Tianjin–Lugou Bridge railway started1897Tianjin–Lugou Bridge railway was built to Fengtai DistrictAugust 1897Tianjin-Lugou Bridge Railway and Tianjin–Yu Pass Railway was combined as Trans-(Shanhai)Pass Railway
()June 1900The railway was extended to Dahushan and yingkou1901The railway was extended from Fengtai to zhengyangmen in Beijing1904The railway was extended to Xinmin, LiaoningApril 1907Chinese government bought the ownership of Japanese-built Xinmin–Mukden railway and changed it to standard gauge1907The railway from Beijing to Fengtian was renamed as Peking–Mukden railwayJanuary 1932The section east of the Shanhai Pass was seized by SMR and renamed Mukden–Shanhaiguan railway while the rest of the railway was renamed as Beijing–Shanhaiguan railway
The Inner-Pass section
Predecessor – Kaiping Tramway Kaiping tramway, commonly known as Tangshan–Xugezhuang railway in China, was the first railway built for transportation purpose and was regarded as the origin of China's railway development. With the length of about 9 km, this railway was completed in November 1881 as a tramway to help the coals in Kaiping Mines move to Tangshan to meet the demands of Imperial Chinese Navy and China Merchants Steam Navigation Company. As the supply of Kaiping Mines increased, this tramway was extended to Lutai and renamed Tangshan–Lutai Railway in 1887.
Conversion to trunk line On 5 March 1887, The Administrative of Imperial Chinese Navy reported to the royal court, requesting for railway's further extension to TakuThe railway station was actually located on the opposite side of the river at Tanggu in the west and Shanhai Pass in the east, to make troops move faster. Claude W. Kinder was called upon to survey the route. Li had to overcome opposition in the Imperial Court...."China's First Railway – The Imperial Railways of North China 1880–1911" by A.L. Rosembaum, (unpublished Yale thesis 1972)> but gained sanction for the line to be extended 50 miles to Tianjin. 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 railway was extended from Lutai to Taku in March 1888, and to Tianjin in August. Having been built for 14 months, the railway was completed and renamed as Tangshan-Tianjin Railway. Limited train services commenced in August 1888.Claude William Kinder: "Railways and Collieries of North China" in: Minutes of Proceedings, Institution of Civil Engineers vol. ciii 1890/91 Paper No.2474Percy Horace Kent: "Railway Enterprise in China", London, 1907 On 9 October, the opening ceremony of Tangshan-Tianjin Railway, presented by Zhili Governor Zhou Fu, was held in Tianjin. After examining the quality of the equipments in person, Li Hongzhang said that "the railway from Tianjin to Tangshan is steady, and the bridges and stations are all built in compliances with technical requirements". At this point, the length of this railway was extended to 130km. The cost of the construction of the extension to Tianjin was 12.4 thousand silver Tael per km and 1.5 million silver Tael in total.
Imperial Court opposed the western extension while sanctioned the northern extension. Under the permission and the demand of transportation from the new-built colliery at Linxi, Guye, the railway reached Guye in late 1890, Lanchou in 1892, and Shanhaiguan in 1894,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 (Chinese: 北洋官铁路局).
It was during this period of expansion that Jeme Tien Yow joined the railway company in 1888 as a cadet engineer under Kinder's supervision. Kinder highly appreciated the talents of this Yale-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."Railway Wonders of the World" – 'A Wonderful Chinese Railway The First Line to be Financed, Built and Operates Solely by Celestial Effort' by F.A. Talbot, London c.1913
Predecessor – Tientsin–Lugou Bridge Railway Tientsin-Lugou Bridge Railway was built from 1895 to 1897 as a mark of reform in the Royal Court. With the length of 150km, this railway connected Beijing, langfang (in hebei), and tianjin.
Extension In 1901, the extension line was built to connect Ma Chiu Pu to Zhengyangmen. When it was completed, the section in Beijing extended along the border between occupation zones controlled by British and German; specifically, the line extended eastward to Yung Ting Men and the Temple of Heaven, turned northward to Dong Bian Men, and turned westward to Zhengyangmen.
The construction of the outer-pass section
Planning At the beginning of 1890, Zongli Yamen suggested railway construction in Northeast China to resist Japan's lust on Korean Peninsula. In April, Hong Jun, the Envoy to Russian Empire, reported Russian's plan of Trans-Siberian Railway, making the Royal Court shocked. To eliminate the potential territorial threats, the Royal Court suspended the construction of Beijing–Hankou railway and ordered Li Hongzhang to "prepare well" the Kwantung Railway from Yingkou to Jilin City and Hunchun. Then, Li sent 2 engineers, Kinder and Cox, to examine the landform. When they came back in November, Li told Navy Administrative that the railway proposed faced huge difficulties in construction and potential low revenue because of the sparse population; moreover, this plan might create tension in Sino-Russian relations. Instead, Li proposed another route from Guye to Shengjing and Jilin City, which was approved in early 1891. When the second land surveying team came back, the details of the route were confirmed as from Shanhai Pass to Jinzhou, Xinmin, Shengjing, and Jilin. In March 1891, Li Hongzhang reported the details of Kwantung Railway, including the methods of construction and the modification on the route, to the Royal Courts; besides, he requested the funds for Beijing-Hankou Railway – 2 million Silver Teal annually – for the construction of Kwantung Railway. The plan was approved on 13 March and Official Railway Bureau of Imperial North China was founded afterward. This was the first time the government preside railway construction.
Construction
Plans to continue the railway North-eastwards beyond Shan Hai Kuan (Shanhaiguan) to Jinzhou, Shenyang and Jilin were set back by the lack of funds and because of First Sino-Japanese War (August 1894 to March 1895). By 1896 the rails had only reached Chung Ho So (pinyin: Zhonghousuo 中后所, nowadays Suizhong County), 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 succeeded in gaining control of this new organization and appointed his own supporters to the directorate. Among them, the most prominent was (), who was appointed Director-General and made responsible for all sections of the Railway."Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period 1644–1912", edited by Arthur W Hummel, United States Government Printing Office, 1943.China's Early Industrialization: Shang Hsuan-huai (1844–1916), A Feuerwerker, Harvard University Press 1958.
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. The loan was arranged by the British and Chinese Corporation, a joint venture and front for the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Jardine Matheson and Company. In spite of objections from the Russians (who were themselves busy grabbing control of Chinese territory in Manchuria) the line to Chinchou was eventually completed in 1899.
On 31 July 1897, the bureaus of Tientsin-Lugou Bridge Railway and Tientsin-Yu Pass Railway merged and formed new Trans-Pass Railway.
Under the control of foreign power, a small port was developed at Qinhuangdao with a six-mile branch line joining the mainline a few miles southwest of Shan Hai Kuan at Tangho.
In April 1902, the Russian Empire signed the Treaty of Recession(Chinese:交收东三省条约); afterward, the Russian government agreed to recall troops in 3 phases and returned the outer-Pass (Shanhai Pass-Yingkou-Dahushan) section. In exchange, the Qing Royal Court agreed to consult Russia about the construction of railways in the south part of Northeast China. However, the Russian government broke their words and only receded to the east bank of Liao River; moreover, they showed their disagreement with the construction of Liao River Bridge by citing the Convention for the Lease of the Liaotung Peninsula. Under this situation, the outer-pass section can only be extended 89 km to Xinmin in 1904; thence, the length of this railway reached 773 km.
Xinmin Tramway issue The Russian troops' refusal of withdrawal intensified the rivalry between Japan and Russia and caused the Russo-Japanese War. Weak in military forces, the Chinese government had no choice but to announce the region east of Liao River as "Battlefield" and "Neutrality". However, the Japanese forces went beyond the line by quartering in Xinmin (located west of Liao River) and built the narrow-gauge (2 ft to 3.5 ft) tramway from Xinmin to Huanggutun railway station, aka. Xinmin–Fengtian Tramway. The protests from Chinese officials, though for several times, were ignored. +The tramways built between Xinmin and Mukden by JapanesePeriodSectionNotesMay 1904Xinmin–GaolitunJapanese troops built this section. Since this section was in a neutral region, troops had to camouflage during construction.
When completed, supplies can be disembarked at Yingkou Port and transported to Xinmin through Liao River.March–April 1905Gaolitun–MukdenThis section was built. The engine of this section was Handcar,