Nation makes tracks for progress

Rail construction sector has rich history

Qinglongqiao Railway Station, a one-story building of gray brick and red tile standing in Beijing's suburban Yanqing district, incorporates traditional Chinese and Western architectural styles.

The Great Wall meanders across nearby mountains, and from the station, the towers of the Badaling section are clearly visible to the northwest. The Juyongguan section lies to the southeast in a valley high in the mountains.

The station, built at the same time as the railroad it serves, is an important landmark on the 201-kilometer Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.

Also known as the Jingzhang Railway, it was the first rail line constructed in China without foreign assistance.

The railway, built between 1905 and 1909, is still in use, as is Qinglongqiao Station. This year marks the 110th anniversary of the railway's opening.

As a dark blue locomotive hauling a long line of green rail cars from Baotou, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, pulled into the station, passengers flocked to the windows to take pictures.

Beside the train station stands a monument commemorating the opening of the railway and a statue of Zhan Tianyou, its chief engineer. Zhan, who died in 1919 age 57, is buried at a small cemetery nearby.

In 1881, Zhan became the first Chinese to graduate from the Civil Engineering Department of Yale University in the United States.

He designed a Y-shaped switchback railway in a valley near Qinglongqiao Station, reducing the length needed for the Badaling Tunnel through the mountains.

Yan Quanzhong, a worker at the station, said: "The design has proved effective over the past century. The Y-shaped switchback means that the trains lose height more gradually as they descend through the mountains. The line drops only 3 meters for every kilometer traveled."

Construction of the line started in Liucun village in Beijing's southern district of Fengtai, before passing through the Guangou Valley, where Qinglongqiao station is located, and ending in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province.

Yang Cunxin, the stationmaster, said: "Many people claim that the Y-shaped design was Zhan's invention. But I have met several groups of his descendants over the years, and they believe that he was not behind it. But it is fair to say that Zhan, at the time, introduced the most advanced railway construction concepts and technologies to China."