Sunday, October 12, 2008

Sun Ning Railway Company

The Sun Ning Railway Company 新寧鐵路 was a standard gauge railway in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province founded in 1906 by Chin Gee Hee 陳宜禧 and Yu Shek 余灼 . It was South China's first railway and one of only three railways in pre-1949 China built solely with private Chinese capital.

Fundraising



In order to fund the railway, Chin raised $2.75 million, mainly from overseas Chinese; some sources say that further investment came from James J. Hill, but others say that at a time when railway development in China was dominated by European nations, he "vowed not to sell shares to foreigners, to borrow money from them, or to use their engineers."

While raising funds and building the railway, Chin encountered numerous obstacles: a magistrate tried to usurp credit for organizing the company; there were many difficulties over obtaining a right of way due to clan feuds and superstitions ; and gentry-officials repeatedly attempted extortion. Chin bought an official title to become legally one of the gentry himself, which somewhat eased the process. Still, the construction was confronted by over a hundred riots staged by local landlord forces, resulting in thirty-nine othewise unnecessary turns, which made construction more expensive and affected speed and safety. Altogether, construction costs totalled about 9.7 million yuan or 4.8 million.

Unfulfilled 1924 plans by Chin would have extended the railway in one direction 40 miles from Doushan to the Tonggu Commercial Port and in the other to Foshan, through which would have reached Guangzhou and the domestic mainland. Chin also wanted to continue west through Yangjiang and the west of Guangdong and to the Leizhou peninsula, forming a traffic network throughout the southwest of Guangdong. Several similar proposals met similar fates: the well-connected Yuehan Railway Company had a near-monopoly on railway construction in Guangdong, some of the gentry wished to create their own railways, and while the Sun Ning finally obtained the required formal positions, by the time it got those permissions it was in financial trouble. Furthermore, the Qing government prevented them from borrowing from abroad, despite the fact that the government itself was taking foreign loans at the time. Consequently, the railway never connected to any major port or any other key city of the Chinese economy.

From 1927 to 1929, the government overtly took over the railroad, but it proved to be beyond their ability to operate it, and they returned it to civilian control. The railroad was destroyed in the Second Sino-Japanese War, dismantled in December 1938 to deny its use by the Japanese military, who nonetheless occupied Taishan. 23,782 rails were shipped to Guangxi in 1942 to build the Qianguei Railway; all other assets, which were worth over three million yuan, were carried off by the Japanese.

Lucie Cheng and Liu Yuzun write that, while the railway did not play major economic or strategic role in the history of Chinese transportation, "its entire life reflects the interlocking but conflicting pressures of Western imperialism, capitalism and feudalism which characterized early twentieth century China… Moreover reflects the role of emigrant capital and nationalism on the development of enterprises in the emigrant motherland," reflecting especially the investment by overseas Chinese in a geographic area which had been the homeland for so many of them.

Shenshan Expressway

Shenshan Expressway is an in the People's Republic of China connecting the cities Shenzhen and Shantou in the province of Guangdong.

Pingnan railway

Pingnan railway is a railway line in Shenzhen connecting with . Freight and long-distance passenger train services are provided.


The route


The line is 50.2km long with 8 stations, from , where it is linked to Guangshen railway, to or . The entire line is single-track and built at standard gauge . The maximum speed on the line is 75 km/h. The line is not electrified, and therefore only diesel locomotives are used on the line.

History


The railway was planned in the late 1980s to provide rail access for the Port of Shenzhen. It was the first railway in the People's Republic of China being built with both local and foreign capital.

Construction of the Pingnan railway was approved in 1991 by the and commenced in September that year. In March 1993 part of the route was opened for trial operation. The entire line was opened in September 1994 and included into the .

In late 2003 Shenzhen West railway station was renovated and enlarged from a few hundred square metres in area to about 3800 m?.

On 2007-09-02, two empty freight carriages were derailed at a switch beside Xili railway station. The carriages were damaged and services on the railway were suspended. Repair works were completed and services resumed by the following day.

Panyu Public Transport

Panyu District Public Transport is a local bus operator in the Panyu District of Guangdong province in China.

Routes



There are 22 bus routes service nearby factories and residential complexes.

Popular routes include:

* Route 11
* Route 12
* Route 13

Routes will likely make connections with the Panyu station of the Guangzhou Metro Line 3, to be completed in 2007.

Fleet





The operator uses aqua coloured Chinese built buses on the routes within Panyu.

Panyu Public Transport operates a fleet of 180 buses. The buses consist of hard stainless steel seats with no air-conditioning or heating.

Fares



Buses accepts cash ranging from 1.5 to 3 yuan and a smart card system similar to the Octopus Card used in Hong Kong .

Ktt

KTT is a type of train set used by the MTR Corporation Limited in Hong Kong on the route. The KTT is not the only service from Hong Kong to China, Guangdong service is also provided by the mainland Chinese railway operators.

The "Ktt" trailers have lower bottom floor than the ordinary cars serving on the same pair of tracks.

Route



* Beijing Line
** Hung Hum
** Beijing

* Shanghai Line
** Hung Hum
** Shanghai

* Guangdong Line
** Hung Hum
** Donguan
** Foshan
** Zhaoqing

Rolling Stock





Between January to May 1998 the "KTT" cars provided service between and stations. After the whole route was , the KTT serves non-stop between Hung Hom Station and Guangzhou East railway station. Although the train model has a top speed of , KTT only runs at a maximum speed of . Under normal demand, KTT has seven compartments . However, during peak season, the train sets are expanded to eight compartments.

Jianying Jinian Bridge

Jianying Jinian Bridge is a bridge over the Meijiang River in Meizhou prefecture in Guangdong province in southern China.

Guangzhan Expressway

Guangzhang Expressway connects the cities Guangzhou and Zhanjiang in the Chinese province of Guangdong.

The expressway is made up of five different expressways that connects the cities between Guangzhou and Zhanjiang, the include:

* Guangfo Expressway connects the cities Guangzhou and Foshan.
* Fokai Expressway connects the cities Foshan and Kaiping.
* Kaiyang Expressway connects the cities Kaiping and Yangjiang.
* Yangmao Expressway connects the cities Yanjing and Maoming.
* Maozhan Expressway connects the cities Maoming and Zhanjiang.