Zhan Tianyou information

Zhan Tianyou, 58, from Nanhai, Guangdong, originally from Wuyuan, Anhui. He is the first railway engineer in China, responsible for the construction of Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway and other projects, and is known as "the father of Chinese railways". Zhan Tianyou 186 1 was born in an ordinary family of tea merchants. Zhan Tianyou, a teenager, is very interested in machines, and often makes various machine models with the children in the neighborhood. Sometimes, he would secretly open the bell at home, fiddle with it, ponder over the components inside and ask questions that even adults could not answer. The villagers envied the child. From 65438 to 0872, Zhan Tianyou, who was only 12 years old, went to Hongkong to sign up for the preparatory class for young children going abroad organized by the Qing government. After passing the exam, my father drew a note on a certificate of going abroad, which said, "If there is illness, life and death, everyone will live in peace." After that, he left his parents and came to the United States to study with the ideal of learning western "skills". In the United States, students of overseas preparatory classes witnessed the great achievements of science and technology in North America and Western Europe and marveled at the rapid development of machinery, trains, ships and telecommunications manufacturing. Some students are pessimistic about the future of China, but Zhan Tianyou firmly said, "In the future, there will be trains and ships in China." With the belief of studying hard for the prosperity of the motherland, he studied hard and graduated from New Haven with 1877. In May of the same year, he was admitted to the Department of Civil Engineering of Yale University, majoring in railway engineering. After four years in college, Zhan Tianyou studied hard, ranking first in the graduation examination with excellent results. 188 1 year, of the 120 China students who returned home, only two got their degrees, and Zhan Tianyou was one of them. After returning home, Zhan Tianyou was full of enthusiasm and prepared to contribute what he had learned to the railway industry of the motherland. However, officials of the Westernization School of the Qing government were overly superstitious about foreign countries, and blindly relied on foreigners when building railways, regardless of Zhan Tianyou's professional expertise, and sent him to Fujian Naval Academy to learn how to drive seagoing ships. 1882 1 1 was sent to the flagship "Wu Yang" as a driving officer to direct the drill. 1883, the Sino-French war broke out. In the second year, the long-planned French fleet entered the Minjiang River in succession, ready to go. However, He Zhangru, the shipping minister of the surrendering faction in charge of Fujian Navy, turned a deaf ear and even ordered: "Don't fire first, and offenders will be beheaded even if they win!" At this time, Zhan Tianyou privately said to Mr. Zhang, the captain of the Wu Yang, "There are many French warships with ulterior motives. Although we have received an order not to fire first, we must never take preventive measures in advance. " Because of Zhan Tianyou's warning, Wu Yang is very alert and ready to fight. When the French fleet launched a surprise attack, Zhan Tianyou braved heavy artillery fire and calmly and tactfully commanded the "Wu Yang" to move forward from left to right; Avoiding enemy fire, seizing fighter planes and shelling the French command ship "Walter" with its tail almost killed the French naval expedition commander "Lonely La". For this naval battle, Zilin Xibao, founded by British businessmen in Shanghai, also had to be surprised and praised in different places: "Westerners didn't expect China people to fight so bravely. Of the five students aboard the Wu Yang, Zhan Tianyou is the bravest. He was fearless in the face of the enemy. At the critical moment of life and death, he remained calm as always and got up the courage to save many people in the water ... "From the post-war to 1888, after many twists and turns, he was finally transferred to China Railway Corporation as an engineer, which was the beginning of his participation in the railway industry in China. Shortly after taking office, Zhan Tianyou was put to the test. At that time, the Tianjin-Hebei railway from Tianjin to Shanhaiguan was built to the Luanhe River, and a railway bridge across the Luanhe River was to be built. The Luanhe River bed has deep sediments, and it encounters rising water and rapids. The railway bridge was designed by a world-class British engineer, but it failed. Later, Japanese engineers were hired as contractors, which was no good. Finally, the German engineer came out and was quickly defeated. Zhan Tianyou asked China people to do it themselves, but the Englishman in charge of the project had no choice but to agree to Zhan Tianyou's attempt.