Qualla: Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway

Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 同生照相号, Public domain. The solution looked like a Chinese character. When engineer Zhan Tianyou needed to get a railway through the steep Badaling mountains northwest of Beijing, he designed a switchback track shaped like the character "ren" -- meaning "people." Trains would climb to a junction, reverse direction, and continue upward along the second stroke of the character, gaining elevation without the impossible gradients that a straight route would require. The technique also allowed him to shorten the Badaling Tunnel by using vertical shafts to excavate from multiple points simultaneously. It was 1905, and every foreign engineer who had assessed the route had declared it impossible for Chinese builders. Zhan Tianyou proved them wrong in four years.

Image: 同生照相号 | Public domain

Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway: A Railway Against Empires

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 谭景棠（1876年－1915年）, Public domain. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway emerged from a tangle of imperial rivalries. In the late 1890s, Britain and Russia competed fiercely for the right to build railways across northern China, each viewing rail infrastructure as a tool of colonial influence. The Qing government reject...

Image: 谭景棠（1876年－1915年） | Public domain

Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway: Zhan Tianyou's Impossible Route

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 霧島聖, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1905, Yuan Shikai, then Viceroy of Zhili, proposed the railway at a projected cost of five million taels of silver. He chose Zhan Tianyou as chief engineer on the recommendation of diplomat Liang Dunyan. Zhan, who had studied at Yale University, faced a route that climbed from...

Image: 霧島聖 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway: Through Revolution, Invasion, and Expansion

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The railway's first decades tracked China's turbulent history. In September 1912, Sun Yat-sen, who had recently resigned as interim president of the Republic of China, traveled to Zhangjiakou by train for an inspection tour, meeting Yuan Shikai in Beijing along the way. In 1916, ...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway: Dismantled but Not Forgotten

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 谭景棠（1876年－1915年）, Public domain. By the early 21st century, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway's physical presence in the capital had largely vanished. The section between Guang'anmen and Xizhimen was dismantled in 1968 to accommodate urban traffic. In 2016, the remaining tracks within Beijing were removed to make ...

Image: 谭景棠（1876年－1915年） | Public domain