Let's take a look at Zhan Tianyou, a famous figure in history today, speaking of Zhan Tianyou, he was a well-known person at that time, because Zhan Tianyou created a breakthrough in China's railway from scratch, Zhan Tianyou was a railway expert at that time, and the Beijing-Zhang Railway was the first railway in the Chinese, which was invented by Zhan Tianyou, and the breakthrough of the railway from scratch also made Chinese raise his eyebrows and breathe a sigh of relief, which also shows that the Chinese people have since stood up. Zhan Tianyou's great contribution is also due to Zhan Tianyou's eagerness to learn, and the experience of studying abroad is also to help Zhan Tianyou go further in his career!
Zhan Tianyou (Chinese: tien yow jeme, April 26, 1861 – April 24, 1919), a native of Nanhai County, Guangdong Province (present-day Xiguan Twelve Fuxi, Guangzhou), was The first chief railway engineer in China, responsible for the construction of the Beijing-Zhang Railway and other projects, known as the "Father of Chinese Railways" and "the Father of Modern Chinese Engineering". One of the first chinese young children to study in the United States, Yale University graduated with a bachelor's degree in philosophy in civil engineering (PH.b).
Zhan Tianyou was born on April 26, 1861, Zhan Tianyou was born in Xiguan Twelve Fu, Zhan Tianyou in his resume called himself "Guangdong Nanhai County Civil Nationality". Zhan Tianyou was an authentic Xiguan native (at that time, Xiguan belonged to Nanhai County).
In 1872, the late Qing Dynasty innovative thinker Rong Hong recruited young children in Hong Kong. Zhan Xinghong's good friend Tam Po Estate, who was doing business in Macau, was well-informed and very enlightened, and urged Mr. and Mrs. Zhan Xinghong to send Zhan Tianyou to apply for the examination abroad. Tan Bo Estate is a native of Zhongshan, and he likes Zhan Tianyou very much, thinking that he is smart and determined to achieve something in the future, so he gave him his fourth daughter Tan Juzhen early. Zhan Xinghong then entrusted Tam Po Estate to take Zhan Tianyou to Hong Kong to register, Zhan Tianyou attended a private school at an early age, studied very well, and successfully applied for the examination in Hong Kong, just 12-year-old Zhan Tianyou was admitted to the preparatory class for young children to go abroad. In August 1872, the first batch of Qing Dynasty officials, including Zhan Tianyou, sent 30 young children studying in the United States to the United States.
After entering elementary and middle school in the United States, Zhan Tianyou entered Yale University with honors in 1878 and studied civil engineering and railways. In May 1881, he graduated with a thesis on "Dock Crane Studies" with a bachelor's degree in philosophy (ph.b). In the same year, the Qing government withdrew all international students. Among the more than 100 returned students, only Zhan Tianyou and Ouyang Geng were able to obtain their degrees in time.
At the beginning of his return to China, Zhan Tianyou was sent to the Mawei Ship Politics School in Fujian to learn to drive, and in 1885 he was transferred to the Huangpu Water Teacher's School in Guangzhou to teach, and once surveyed the coastal charts of Guangdong. In 1888, on the recommendation of Kwong Sun Mou, he was transferred to the China Railway Company, founded by Li Hongzhang and Wu Tingfang, and was apprenticed as an engineer under the British engineer Claude W. kinder and was given the opportunity to apply what he had learned.
Between 1887 and 1888, Zhan Tianyou participated in the laying of tracks for the Jingu Railway from Tanggu to Tianjin, which connects Tangshan to Tianjin, and was soon appreciated by Jinda and promoted to engineer and regional engineer.
In 1901, after the Eight-Nation Alliance withdrew from Beijing and Cixi, who had fled to Xi'an, returned to Beijing, he announced that he would take a train to Xiling to worship the ancestors, and ordered his subordinates to build a Xinyi Railway between Gaobeidian and YiXian for her to ride when Cixi worshipped her ancestors. Cixi entrusted the construction of the Xinyi Railway to Yuan Shikai and demanded that it be completed within 6 months. Yuan Shikai wanted to ask the British engineer Claude William Kinda to preside over the road construction, but was opposed by france. In the face of the stalemate between Britain and France, on October 19, 1902, Yuan Shikai officially appointed Zhan Tianyou as the chief engineer and built the railway in four months and at a low cost. Although this 37-kilometer-long route did not have much substantive effect, it was the first railway built by the Chinese themselves.
Later, the Qing government prepared to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway connecting Beijing to Zhangjiakou. Because of the strategic value of the railway, both Britain and Russia wanted the right to build it. However, the senior planning surveyors and engineers of the railways in Britain and Russia considered it extremely difficult after many explorations. Because there are many steep peaks in the Yanshan Mountain Range Group, most of the composition materials of Yanshan No. 2 Peak, which was selected as the "Second Tunnel", are mostly granite and basalt, and it is difficult to use the general method of "exploding tunnels and opening the road", which makes the great powers let the Beijing-Zhang Railway increase the budget. As a result, Yuan Shikai decided in 1905 not to use foreign funds or foreigners, and to build the Beijing-Zhang Railway by China itself. Zhan Tianyou was appointed chief engineer, and later concurrently served as the general office of the railway.
The Beijing-Zhang railway is about 220 kilometers long, and because it needs to pass through the Yanshan Mountains inside and outside the Great Wall, many tunnels and bridges need to be built, and the project is quite complicated. At that time, some foreigners questioned Chinese's ability to build the railway on its own; Zhan Tianyou also understands the difficulty of engineering and the reputation of Chinese engineers, but still insists on trying hard.
Zhan Tianyou chose one of the three routes he personally planned, with a relatively moderate cost, route direction, and passenger flow. Another route, which he thought was better for the route and passenger flow, but was forced to abandon it because of the higher cost, was later built as the Fengsha Railway in 1955. In the end, the Beijing-Zhang Railway was completed on August 11, 1909 and opened to traffic on October 2, four years later, shortening the construction time by two years compared with the original plan; The construction cost was also saved by 350,000 taels of silver compared with the original budget. There are four tunnels on the railway, of which the Badaling Tunnel is 1,092 meters long and excavated by the shaft method; In addition, there is a 200-meter-long, steel-framed Huailai Bridge; In addition, in the Badaling section (full of cliffs), the "z" track is used, and the road climbs the slope to solve the problem of dangerous terrain, excessive slope and limited funds. The successful construction of the Beijing-Zhang Railway is not only an important achievement in the history of modern Chinese engineering, but also plays a great role in encouraging China, which is setting off a trend of private self-run railways.
After the completion of the Beijing-Zhang Railway, Zhan Tianyou was given the post of Engineering Officer by Xuantong and served as the chief examiner of international students. In 1910, he was appointed as the prime minister and engineer of the Guangdong Commercial Office Guangdong-Han Railway Corporation, and in 1912, he also served as the Han-Guangdong-Sichuan Railway Association, responsible for the construction of the Guangdong-Han and Sichuan-Han Railways. Since then, he has been settling at No. 9 Oha Street (now No. 51 Dongting Street) in the Russian Concession of Hankou. In the same year, the "Chinese Society of Engineers" was established and elected as the first president. After the founding of the Republic of China, he was appointed by the government as the technical supervisor of the Ministry of Communications in 1913, and in 1914 he was awarded the second class Baoguang Jiahe Medal. In 1916, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from the University of Hong Kong. In early 1919, he was appointed to Vladivostok and Harbin as a Chinese delegate to the Allied Conference on the Supervision of the Far Eastern Railway.
In April 1919, Zhan Tianyou returned to Hankou due to illness and died on April 24 at the age of 59. In 1922, a bronze statue of Zhan Tianyou was erected at the Qinglongqiao Railway Station. Zhan Tianyou and his wife Tan Juzhen were originally buried in Wanquanzhuang, Haidian District, Beijing, and on May 20, 1982, the Ministry of Railways of the People's Republic of China, the Beijing Railway Bureau and the China Railway Society relocated Zhan Tianyou and his wife to the right side of the qinglongqiao railway station building of the Beijing-Zhang Railway. In 1987, the Zhan Tianyou Memorial Hall was built nearby.
Zhan Tianyou mainly achieved zhan Tianyou during the construction of the Beijing-Zhang Railway, and determined various railway engineering standards, and wrote to the government for the whole country to adopt. The 4-foot 8-and-a-half (1.435 m) standard rail still used in China, the Janney coupler (also known as the Jiang Xiao car hook, the Janney hook, the Zheng hook, the Zhan hook, the American eli h. Janney, mistakenly thought to be Zhan Tianyou's invention and called the Zhan hook, is actually due to the name of its inventor Chinese the transliteration of the "Zhan", Zhan Tianyou only made some slight modifications to it) and so on are from Zhan Tianyou's proposal. In addition, Zhan Tianyou also focused on the training of railway talents, formulated the charter for the promotion and transfer of engineers, made clear provisions on the assessment and requirements of engineering personnel, and determined that the salaries of engineers were linked to the assessment results. The Beijing-Zhang Railway has trained many Chinese engineers, and the assessment regulations formulated by Zhan Tianyou have become the imitation objects of other Chinese railways.