The Beijing–Hankou or Jinghan railway ( simplified Chinese : 京汉铁路 ; traditional Chinese : 京漢鐵路 ; pinyin : Jīnghàn Tiělù ), also Peking–Hankow railway , was the former name of the railway in China from Beijing to Hankou , on the northern bank of the Yangtze River . The railway was built between 1897 and 1906 by a Belgian company backed by French financing. At Hankou, railway carriages were ferried across the Yangtze River to Wuchang on the southern bank, where they would connect to the Guangdong–Hankou railway . The completion of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge in 1957 linked the two railways into a single contiguous railway known as the Beijing–Guangzhou railway .
19-888: From 1928 to 1945, when Beijing was known as Beiping , the Beijing–Hankou railway was known as the Beiping–Hankou or Pinghan railway. During the Second Sino-Japanese War , the Japanese advance into central China was known as the Beiping–Hankou Railway Operation . In 1896, the Imperial Chinese Railway Administration was established to oversee railway construction in China. Sheng Xuanhuai attempted to balance
38-411: A 100 kilometres (62 mi) stretch and 20 kilometres (12 mi) of track had been laid down in the south. In the north there were 60 kilometres (37 mi) of embankments and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) of track. The Boxer Rebellion halted construction for several months in 1900. All the railway officials were given arms to protect themselves. In the northern stretch from Lugouqiao to Fengtai all
57-460: A completed section of the line on their way back to Beijing. In June 1905 the 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) bridge over the Yellow River was open to traffic. The 1,214 kilometres (754 mi) line with 125 stations was opened on 14 November 1905. It was recognized as a major (and profitable) achievement, and the responsible engineer Jean Jadot gained great credit. The Beijing–Hankou railway
76-809: Is Tokyo , Japan , whose Han script name is written 東京 ( Dongjing , or "Eastern Capital"). 東京 was also a former name of Hanoi (as Đông Kinh or " Tonkin ") in Vietnam during the Later Lê dynasty . A former name of Seoul in South Korea was Gyeongseong , written in Han script as 京城 or "Capital City". Kyoto in Japan still bears the similar-meaning characters 京都 : the character "都", du in Chinese, can also mean "capital". The history of China since
95-512: The Anglosphere , the BBC switched in 1990. "Peking" is still employed in terms such as " Pekingese ", " Peking duck ", " Peking Man " and various others, as well as being retained in the name of Peking University . The city has had many other names. The chronological list below sets out both the names of the city itself, and, in earlier times, the names of the administrative entities covering
114-914: The Northern Song at modern Daming in Hebei ; the other, the northern capital of the Jurchen Jin located at Ningcheng in Inner Mongolia . The Nanjing of the Northern Song was located at Shangqiu in Henan . The Jurchen Jin located theirs at Kaifeng , ) which had been the Northern Song's "Dongjing". The Jurchen Jin also had a Dongjing ("Eastern Capital"), which was, however, located at Liaoyang in Liaoning . Apart from these, there were two Xijings ( 西 京 , "Western Capital"): one
133-732: The Tang dynasty has also been full of secondary capitals with directional names. Under the Tang, these were Beidu ("north capital", at Taiyuan in Shanxi ); Nandu ("south capital", first, Chengdu in Sichuan and, later, Jiangling in Hubei ); Dongdu ("east capital", Luoyang in Henan ); and Xidu ("west capital", Fengxiang in Shaanxi ). There were two previous Beijings: one, the northern capital of
152-718: The city today. In Chinese , the abbreviation of Beijing is its second character 京 ("Capital"). This is employed, for example, as the prefix on all Beijing-issued license plates . In the Latin alphabet , the official abbreviation are the two initials of the region's characters: BJ . Beijing Capital International Airport 's IATA code is PEK , based on the previous romanization, Peking. In addition to Nanjing , several other East Asian and Southeast Asian cities have similar names in Chinese characters despite appearing dissimilar in English transliteration . The most prominent
171-575: The foreign powers by awarding concessions to different countries. In 1897, a Belgian consortium agreed to lend £4.5 million sterling for the construction of a railway between Beijing and Hankou. The connecting Guangdong–Hankou railway was awarded to the American China Development Company in 1898. Starting in March 1899, the work progressed from both ends. By the end of 1899 the embankments had been completed along
190-533: The formation of a Bank of Communications to redeem the Beijing–Hankou railway from its Belgian owners. The Bank of Communications was formed in 1908 and provided more than half of the financing needed to buy the railway, the remaining coming from the Imperial Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance. The railway was placed under Chinese control on January 1, 1909, and the successful redemption enhanced
209-596: The founding of the People's Republic of China . Portugal was the first European country to contact China in modern times. In Portuguese, the city is called Pequim. This name appeared in the letters of Francis Xavier in 1552. It transferred to English as "Pekin" and to French as Pékin . Jesuit missionary Martino Martini used "Peking" in De bello Tartarico historia (The Tartary [Manchu] War) (1654) and Novus Atlas Sinensis (New Atlas of China) (1655). In 1665, Martini's work
SECTION 10
#1732772207968228-698: The meeting. The Federation protested, and decided on a major strike on February 4, 1923, and relocated its office to Jiang'an, in the city of Hankou. The strike took place on February 7. Wu Peifu sent his troops to besiege the Workers' Union of Jiang'an. The chief of the Jiang'an Workers' Union (Lin Xiangqian) was arrested, and subsequently executed. Workers' movements in Changxindian, Zhengzhou, Baoding, and Gaobeidian were also put down. Union members wore badges at
247-529: The next decade. The Chinese characters 北 ("north") and 京 ("capital") together mean the "Northern Capital". The name was first used during the reign of the Ming dynasty 's Yongle Emperor , who made his northern fief a second capital, along with Nanjing ( 南京 , the "Southern Capital"), in 1403 after successfully dethroning his nephew during the Jingnan Campaign . The name was restored in 1949 at
266-703: The prestige of Liang's Communications Clique . The Beijing–Hankou railway workers' strike of 1923, also known as the February 7th strike, was an important event involving this railway. By the end of 1922, 16 workers' unions had been established on the Jing-Han Railway. A ceremony to establish the Federation of Workers' Unions of the Beijing–Hankou Railway was held on February 1, 1923. However, warlord Wu Peifu sent his military police to sabotage
285-514: The strike – these were inscribed 江岸京漢鐵路工會會員證勞工神聖 (Member's badge of the Jiang'an Jing-Han Railway Union. Labour is sacred). Beiping " Beijing " is from pinyin Běijīng, which is romanized from 北京 , the Chinese name for this city. The pinyin system of transliteration was approved by the Chinese government in 1958, but little used until 1979. It was gradually adopted by various news organizations, governments, and international agencies over
304-589: The workshops, warehouses and wagons were destroyed and the sleepers were taken. Work continued in the south, where the viceroys ensured protection for the Europeans. In 1901 the line was extended through the section between Xinyang and Hankou in the hilly land between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. Only one 500 metres (1,600 ft) tunnel was needed. In January 1902 the Imperial Court travelled along
323-730: Was completed in 1906. In the meantime, the Belgians had purchased a controlling stake in the American company that held the concession for the Guangdong–Hankou railway . Most of the shares in the Belgian company were owned by Édouard Empain , and this move threatened to place the entire route between Beijing and Guangzhou under foreign control. Opposition to this state of affairs was especially strong in Hunan . In 1907, Liang Shiyi proposed
342-527: Was reissued as part of Atlas Maior (great atlas), a much-praised atlas by Dutch publisher Joan Blaeu . In English, both "Pekin" and "Peking" remained common until the 1890s, when the Imperial Post Office adopted Peking. Beginning in 1979, the PRC government encouraged use of pinyin . The New York Times adopted "Beijing" in 1986, with all major American media soon following. Elsewhere in
361-642: Was the "Western Capital" of the Northern Song dynasty , located at Luoyang ; the other was held by the Liao and Jurchen Jin at Datong . Liaoyang was the Zhongjing ( 中京 , "Central Capital") of the Liao dynasty and, finally, another Zhongdu ("Central Capital") was planned but never completed. It was the proposed capital of the Ming dynasty mooted by the Hongwu Emperor in the 14th century, to be located on
#967032