In China, railway is an important national infrastructure and popular means of transportation, and it is in the backbone position in China's comprehensive transportation system. China has a vast territory, a large population and uneven distribution of resources, so the economical and fast railway generally has great advantages and has become a widely used mode of transportation.
The speed increase of China Railway several times is an important event that has lasted for many years.
China railway is divided into ordinary railway, express railway and high-speed railway with different names.
In the era of high-speed rail, the railway grades in China are divided into high-speed rail, national railway I (including express rail and trunk railway), II III and subway I II.
Trains in China are divided into ordinary trains, express trains and CRH trains. These concepts have narrow sense and broad sense, but they do not correspond to the third-class railway.
Entrepreneurial period (1876- 1893)
Information and knowledge about railways began to be introduced into China around the Opium War. At that time, Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan, Xu Jishe and other patriotic people of insight in China wrote books and introduced railway knowledge.
China's railways began in the late Qing Dynasty. However, the Qing government was corrupt, conservative and autocratic, only obeying the rules of ancestors and refusing to accept new things. They regard the construction of railways and the application of steam locomotives as "strange skills and cunning" and think that the construction of railways will "damage me, harm my land and hinder my feng shui", so they stubbornly refuse to build railways.
On July 3rd, 1876, the first railway, Wusong Railway, appeared in China. Conspiracy by Britain and the United States, by the British agent in China-Yi.
Wusong railway
And the foreign firm-the "ordinary highway" from Wusong to Shanghai was built in the name of the Qing government, and the first commercial railway in China-Shanghai Wusong Railway was built and opened to traffic without authorization. Subsequently, the Qing government paid 285,000 yuan to redeem the railway in three phases and demolished it. Five years later, under the auspices of the Westernization School of the Qing government, the Tangshan-Xugezhuang Railway was completed in 188 1, which opened the curtain for China to build the railway independently. However, due to the ignorance and closed-door policy of the Qing government, by 1894, only about 400 kilometers of railways had been built in twenty years. 1879, Li Hongzhang, the leader of the Westernization School, invited to build a railway from Tangshan to Beitang in order to transport the coal from Tangshan Kaiping Coal Mine to Tianjin. The Qing government decided to shorten the railway on the grounds that the locomotive "injured crops and shook the grave", and only built a section from Tangshan to Xugezhuang, and dug a canal between Xugezhuang and Lutai to connect the thistle canal to Beitangkou. In order to prevent the locomotive from shaking the grave, it was decided to pull the cart with mules and horses.
However, using mules and horses to pull carts can not give full play to the due utility of railways. 188 1 when Tang Xu railway was opened to traffic, China workers successfully trial-produced 0-3-0 steam locomotive by using some design drawings of British Jinda, who was still an engineer at that time, and using old materials such as mine crane boiler and vertical shaft frame trough iron. This is the first locomotive made in the history of China.
Another way of saying it is that the first train in China was made by the wife of Bonet, an Englishman who was then the chief engineer of Tang Xu Railway, imitating the steam locomotive rocket made by the famous British George Stevenson, and named it China Rocket. But China workers carved a dragon on each side of the locomotive, so they called it "Dragon" locomotive.
Because the words "China Rocket" and the symbol of the dragon can be clearly seen in the photo, later generations always think that this is the first locomotive made in China. However, as can be seen from the pictures left, this locomotive is well designed and well made, so how can it compare with the "monster" made of waste materials?
In 2003, Peter Crass, an Englishman who studied China Railway, found a photo of Jinda and China rocket. By comparison, it can be seen that the "China Rocket" in this photo is obviously different from the "China Rocket" in the photo preserved by China: the chimney of the locomotive is thin and tall, and the other is thick and short; In front of the water tanks on both sides of the locomotive, one has shoe-shaped blocks and the other does not; On the cab, one is marked № 1, and the other is a circular mark ... Due to the age and lack of information, the first locomotive made in China is still mysterious, and it is difficult to know the truth for a while.
At present, China Railway Museum collects the oldest existing locomotives in China. Because there is a big "0" on its fuselage, people call it "0" locomotive. According to experts' research, after the opening of Tang-Xu Railway, "1882 bought two 0-2-0 small locomotives (only two pairs of moving wheels) from Britain to participate in the operation." It is considered to be the first locomotive imported from China.
The slow development period of China railway (1894- 1948)
Imperialism struggles for the right of way.
1894, after the Qing government was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, Eight-Nation Alliance seized the railway rights and interests of China. More than 10,000 kilometers of China road rights were swallowed up.
Zhangjing railway
Bits carved up, formed the first climax of imperialism plundering China's road rights. Subsequently, according to their own needs, they designed and built a number of railways, with different standards and messy equipment, which caused the confusion and backwardness of China railways. During the Qing government period (1876 ~1911), about 9,400 kilometers of railways were built. Among them, about 465,438+0% was directly built and operated by imperialism; Loan-controlled imperialism accounts for about 39%; State-owned railways, including Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway and China's own commercial railways, as well as the redeemed Beijing-Han and Guangzhou-San Railways, account for only about 20%.
The first stage of China Railway was from the completion of 188 1 Tangxu Railway to the collapse of191Qing government. During this period, due to the continuous suggestions and advocacy of Westernization School and people with lofty ideals in China, the Qing government not only changed the understanding that building a railway would "harm us, harm our land and hinder our geomantic omen", but also accepted the lessons of war failure, and then realized that "opening a railway can be a military remedy" from strengthening coastal defense, finally determined the policy of building a railway, established a railway company and began to build a railway in a planned way. Over the past 30 years, railways have been built in 18 provinces and cities, with a total length of 9 137.2 kilometers. Some of these railways are government-run, some are commercial, some are jointly organized by government and businessmen, some are Sino-foreign joint ventures, or they are simply built by foreigners.
The wheel of history entered the Republic of China, and the situation of railway construction changed. At the beginning of the establishment of Nanjing Provisional Government, the Ministry of Communications was established, and the All-China Railway Association and China Railway Corporation were successively established. The Nanjing Kuomintang government, which has been in power since 1928, has carried out a large-scale railway development plan during its more than 20 years of rule, and once set up the Ministry of Railways to take charge of the national railway industry, but not many railways have been built. The shortage of railways in the whole country has not changed under the circumstances of national decline, people's poverty and years of war. By 1949, there are 4,069 locomotives in China, which come from more than 30 factories in 9 countries, and the locomotive model is 198. No wonder people call China the "World Locomotive Museum". According to the information provided in [5], there are 1892 sets of two-wheeled and bell hill (Bichel type) locomotives imported from Britain.
After the Revolution of 1911, Yuan Shikai announced "unified road administration" in 19 12, dissolved the provincial commercial railway companies, and nationalized all the railways built and under construction in the provinces to pay off the foreign debts, thus forming the second climax of imperialist plundering of China's road rights. From 19 12 to 19 16, countries have obtained the right of way of13,000 kilometers. During the period of Beiyang government (19 12~ 1927), about 2 100 km of railways were built in the pass.
From 65438 to 0928, after the Nanjing Kuomintang government came to power, the railway was mainly built in the form of "joint venture" between bureaucratic comprador capital and imperialist monopoly capital, which triggered the third climax of imperialist plunder of China's road rights. During the period of Nanjing National Government (1928~ 1948), a railway of about 13000 km was built on the Chinese mainland.
Emergency repair to restore railway transportation time (1949- 1952)
194910/After the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC),1949 built 8278 kilometers of railways. By the end of 1949, the national railway mileage * * * will reach 2 1 8 1 km, and the passenger and freight conversion turnover will be 3 140 1 100 million kilometers.
1952 June 18, the first through train from Manzhouli to Guangzhou started, with a total distance of more than 4,600 kilometers. By the end of 52, the national railway mileage had increased to 22,876 kilometers, and the passenger and cargo conversion turnover had reached 80.224 billion tons kilometers.
Basic formation period of railway skeleton (1953- 1978)
Since 1953, the country has entered a period of planned development of the national economy. By 1980, the railway has gone through five five-year plans and achieved brilliant results.
1976, the people of China smashed the counter-revolutionary clique of the Gang of Four, ending ten years of turmoil. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party, a great historical turning point took place. The focus of national work has shifted to socialist modernization, and the policy of "adjustment, reform, rectification and improvement" has been put forward. The railway industry has been gradually restored and developed. By the end of 1980, the operating mileage of the railway reached 49,940 kilometers, the framework of the national railway network was basically formed, and the passenger and cargo turnover was changed.
The New Period of Railway Development in China (1979-2002)
Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the national economy has entered a new period of development. 1982 pointed out that "railway transportation has become an important factor restricting the development of national economy" and put forward the strategy of "fighting Daqin in the north, attacking Hengguang in the south and taking East China in the middle". By the end of 1985, the national railway mileage had reached 52 1 19 km, and the passenger and cargo conversion turnover had exceeded 1 trillion-ton km. 1949 on the eve of the founding of new China, the railway mileage in China reached 2 1800 kilometers. By the end of 2003, the railway in China was only 73,000 kilometers. In 50 years, it has only increased by 50 thousand kilometers, with less than one cigarette per capita!
On June 7, 2005, Wen Jiabao presided over the the State Council executive meeting, discussed and approved in principle the Medium and Long-term Railway Network Planning, which defined the medium and long-term construction goal of China railway network: by 2020, the national railway operating mileage will reach 654.38+million kilometers, the main busy trunk lines will realize the separation of passengers and goods, the double-track rate and electrification rate will reach 50% respectively, and the transportation capacity will meet the needs of national economic and social development. Main technical equipment. Liu Zhijun, Minister of the Ministry of Railways, said in June 5438+1October 65438+February 2005 that large-scale railway construction has started, and the total investment scale of construction will reach more than 500 billion yuan.