Kaiping Railway (Tangshan–Xugezhuang)
Ferrocarril de Kaiping (Tangshan–Xugezhuang)
- Date
- 1881 · confidence high
- Place
- Tangshan, Hebei, China
- Credited to
- Kaiping Mining Company and Claude W. Kinder
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A 9.7 km line to carry coal from the Kaiping mines, with the first locomotive built in China, the 'Rocket of China'. It was the country's first lasting railway.
The Woosung railway (Shanghai–Wusong, 1876) was the first opened in China, but the government bought and dismantled it in 1877; Kaiping was the first to remain in service.
What it led to
- the Chinese Tangshan–Tianjin and Beijing–Shanhaiguan railway network
- the Tangshan coal industry
- standard gauge as China's gauge