At present, the world has recognized that China is an "infrastructure madman". However, does anyone understand who is the founder of infrastructure construction in our country? Indeed, this gentleman is Zhan Tianyou, who is well known to any Chinese elementary school student!
In 1909, he successfully presided over the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. Previously, some British experts ridiculed that Chinese engineers could build the railway before they were born.
Mr. Zhan Tianyou overcame one "ghostly worry" problem after another and used the world-famous "herringbone" line in order to build this railway, which was designed and built entirely by the Chinese themselves.
In the end, the project was completed two years ahead of schedule, and the total cost was 6.93 million taels**, which is only one-fifth of what Western experts estimated.
What is the life legend of Mr. Zhan Tianyou?
How did he create the miracle of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway?
115 years later, is the railway, which was once the pride of the Chinese people, still in good condition?
An act of devotion to the nation.
Mr. Zhan Tianyou was born in 1861 in Nanhai County, Guangdong, which is today's Nanhai City.
From an early age, he showed extraordinary intelligence, a thorough knowledge of traditional texts, and his ability to write and speak with great emotion. However, as he grew older, his interest in mechanics grew. It coincided with the fact that Guangdong was the first area to open up to the outside world in the Qing Dynasty, and there were more factories. Therefore, when he was a child, Zhan Tianyou often collected discarded machine parts and then used mud to "imitate".
In the early 1870s, the Qing dynasty agreed to Rong Hong's proposal to allow him to organize 120 children to study in the United States. After Zhan Tianyou's prospective father-in-law, Tan Bocun, learned the news, he got the consent of Zhan Tianyou's father and took him to apply for the exam.
After Zhan Tianyou passed the written test and left a deep impression on Rong Hong in the interview, he won a place to study in the United States, and lived up to the painstaking efforts of his future father-in-law. He was 11 years old.
During his studies in the United States, Zhan Tianyou has always had excellent grades. In 1878, he graduated second in his class from high school in the United States, and then went on to attend the prestigious Yale University, where he majored in railroads in civil engineering.
At that time, some students were pessimistic about the future of the motherland after witnessing the developed industry in the United States, but Zhan Tianyou was full of confidence and vowed to let the motherland also have its own trains and ships.
Therefore, at Yale University, he worked tirelessly and won the scholarship of the first place in mathematics twice. In 1881, he successfully graduated and wrote ** on the title "A Study of Dock Cranes". At this time, the diehards in the Qing Dynasty strongly opposed international students studying abroad, and at the same time, anti-Chinese sentiment was also prevalent in the United States. Therefore, Qing ** issued an order requiring all international students to return to China immediately.
In June 1881, Zhan Tianyou returned to his homeland, where he had been absent for nine years. He happened to be one of only two of the 120 students who studied in the United States to earn a degree. However, just as he was about to make a big splash, the Westernists** relied too much on foreigners for the construction of the railway, and transferred him to the Sailor School of the Mawei Ship Administration Bureau in Fujian Province to learn naval steamship piloting.
The gap between land and sea is huge, and this involves completely different professions. However, Zhan Tianyou was not bothered by these and still studied hard. In the autumn of 1882, he graduated first in class and received the title of Five-Rank Crown, after which he remained on as a teacher.
In October 1884, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Guangdong, invited Zhan Tianyou to serve as an instructor at the Guangdong Erudite Hall in Huangpu, Guangzhou, and was responsible for supervising the construction of the fort. In addition to his work, Zhan Tianyou also used his spare time to map China's first nautical chart, the Guangdong coastal chart. Unfortunately, due to the impact of the war, the whereabouts of the map are still unknown.
In 1888, Zhan Tianyou was recommended by his classmates in the United States to work as an assistant to the chief engineer of the China Railway Company in Tianjin, and from then on, his railway career was officially launched.
In 1890, the Qing Dynasty decided to start the construction of the railway inside and outside the Guan, and hired the British engineer Jinda as the chief engineer. By the summer of 1892, the construction of the railroad had been extended to the banks of the Luan River, but then it came to a standstill.
What is the reason for this?
Building the bridge is a difficult task because the Luanhe riverbed is thick with silt and sand, and the geology is extremely complex. Therefore, the bridge piers must be repaired before crossing the river.
To solve this problem, Kinda first enlisted the British engineer Kirks, who was considered a world-class talent. However, Kirks was too conceited and began to repair the bridge without a careful survey. As a result, the piling was not well driven and the piers collapsed quickly.
In desperation, he transferred the work to the Japanese engineer, because the other party's fee was slightly lower. It's a pity that the Japanese engineers are not even as good as him, and they can't even beat the bridge piles well.
Seeing that the delivery date was approaching, Jinda was so anxious that she found another German. But the German was even more incompetent, and even the piers did not succeed in hitting the bottom of the river.
In the end, Jinda had to turn to Zhan Tianyou for help.
Finally, Zhan Tianyou ushered in his first opportunity to prove the competence of Chinese engineers.
The founder of the railway.
Zhan Tianyou, who was only 32 years old at the time, did not have the arrogant attitude of a foreigner, but modestly asked the old boatmen by the river about the changes in the water flow, and also asked the experienced old workers for construction methods. At the same time, he personally went to the front line to survey the Luanhe River and accumulated a lot of first-hand information.
Eventually, he bravely tried a new method of pile foundation construction, the "pneumatic caisson method", for the construction of bridge piers. At the heart of this approach is the use of an enclosed iron box, with a closed top and no bottom, as an underwater working space, which is then pressurized and drained with high-pressure gas, allowing workers to carry out construction in it.
In this way, the obstacle to the construction of the bridge across the river was finally overcome. The piers built by Zhan Tianyou quickly withstood the test of the flood and stood tall. The foreigner's desire to see the joke was all in vain. They never expected that a little-known Chinese engineer would solve a problem that three foreign "big names" were helpless. Therefore, they could only marvel at Zhan Tianyou's courage and talent.
The Luanhe Bridge, designed and built by Chinese engineers, has a total length of 305 meters and is the first modern bridge. Now, the bridge is considered a precious historical artifact and has been preserved.
In 1894, Zhan Tianyou became the first Chinese engineer to be invited to join the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Zhan Tianyou was also later responsible for the construction of the Xinyi Railway, which was used by Cixi to Xiling to worship the tomb. In addition, he also participated in the design and construction of Jinlu, Jinzhou, Pingli and other railways, and gradually accumulated rich experience in railway design and construction.
In 1905, in order not to offend either the British or the people, and at the same time to save money, the Qing Dynasty decided to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway on its own. Zhan Tianyou undoubtedly became the chief engineer of the railway.
The geographical conditions for the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway were extremely difficult, and can be described as a "hellish" challenge. Some Britons even sarcastically claim that there are no Chinese engineers who can complete the project; If the Chinese undertake the construction task on their own, I am afraid it will take up to 50 years to complete.
Zhan Tianyou made up his mind about this, and he vowed to fight for the motherland!
In May 1905, Zhan Tianyou and his assistants carried out field survey work on the railway construction route. During the whole process, they experienced the hardships of trekking mountains and rivers, eating and sleeping in the open air, and surveyed from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, a distance of more than 200 kilometers. In the Nankou Guangou section, which is the most difficult to construct, Zhan Tianyou even carried out the survey of seven or eight lines, and finally selected the most ideal line.
On September 4, 1905, the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway began in earnest, which was divided into three sections.
The most striking aspects of this project are the two sections, one is the tunnel and the other is the "human" shaped line.
Let's talk about tunnels first.
The main tunnel of the project is located in the second section of the project, i.e. the section from the South Exit to Cha Dao Town. Along the way, there are mountains and cliffs, and although the distance between north and south is less than 20 kilometers, the drop is nearly 600 meters, which is equivalent to the height of a 200-story building.
Tunneling is the most expensive item in the budget. After many surveys, Zhan Tianyou finally decided to dig only four tunnels to save costs.
In the past, tunnels were usually dug by hand during construction. However, for the first time in this construction, Zhan Tianyou boldly used the method of explosive blasting and adopted the strategy of starting construction from both ends of the tunnel at the same time.
The Badaling Tunnel is the most challenging of the four. According to the plans of Western engineers, it was supposed to be at least 1,800 meters long, but Zhan Tianyou successfully shortened its length to 1,091 meters through clever design.
This tunnel is the first in the history of China's railways to exceed a kilometer, and it is also very difficult to excavate in the world.
After 18 months of hard work, the Badaling Tunnel was finally successfully completed in 1908. After measurement, its north-south straight line and horizontal height are correct. This shows Zhan Tianyou's superb technical level.
After repairing the four tunnels, Zhan Tianyou faced a second difficulty: how to build the Badaling Railway, which has a drop of up to 600 meters?
With a height of 200 floors, it is almost like climbing the train to the sky. Even if the locomotive had enough traction, it was quite dangerous to drive, not to mention that the locomotive at the time did not have such strong traction.
What should I do about this?
Zhan Tianyou finally chose the "human" herringbone line, that is, the switchback line railway, to overcome this problem.
Instead of going straight to the top of the mountain, the train travels along the slope for some distance and then connects to the new locomotive head by another track at the top of the mountain, allowing the train to continue on to the steeper second section of the line.
In this way, the train can easily climb the mountain by pulling one top at a time. This design not only solves the problem of train climbing, but also greatly shortens the length of the Badaling Tunnel, saving a full 100,000 taels of silver.
In addition, Zhan Tianyou also designed 12 evacuation routes along the railway line. In the event of a train breakdown, it is possible to enter the refuge line on the reverse ramp.
It is worth mentioning that many sources claim that the "herringbone" line was pioneered by Zhan Tianyou. However, in fact, this design has been used as early as the mountains of South America, and there are similar routes in the United States. Zhan Tianyou has always looked at the problem with an objective and scientific attitude, and has never claimed to be the inventor of the design. He also specifically instructed his colleagues that a meandering line along the mountain range was the preferred option, but due to the budget and construction constraints of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, he had to adopt a "herringbone" line.
In October 1910, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was officially opened to traffic, which was the first trunk railway built by the Chinese themselves, and was recognized as the most difficult railway project in the world at that time, and its significance is self-evident.
Under the leadership of Zhan Tianyou, the total construction investment of this railway is only 6.93 million taels**, which is amazing. The previous estimate of foreign engineering experts was as high as 30 million taels! In contrast, the construction cost of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was only half of that of the Kannai Railway, which was originally built by foreigners.
Even his old boss praised the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, calling it a miracle.
At the opening ceremony, a friend asked Zhan Tianyou which section of the railway was the most difficult to build. Zhan Tianyou replied modestly and humorously: "The most difficult part is my speech today. ”
Zhan Tianyou's contribution to China's railway industry is far more than the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, in fact, there are many other aspects.
History endures. In January 1910, Zhan Tianyou won the first place in the engineering jinshi issued by the Qing Dynasty.
In 1909 he was also invited to join the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Royal Institution of Industry and Commerce, and the Northern Society of Science and Arts, the Railway Track Society, and the Concrete Society of Great Britain.
In 1917, Zhan Tianyou was appointed as the chairman of the Railway Technical Committee of the Ministry of Communications of Beiyang, and he laid the foundation for the standardization and regulation of China's railway engineering, and its far-reaching significance actually far exceeded that of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. If it were not for his perseverance, what the old China would have left behind would be all kinds of incompatible railway lines of different widths and narrowness, which would have a disastrous impact on the railway construction of the new China.
He planned and personally supervised the construction of more than 20 railways, including the famous China Eastern Railway.
Although Zhan Tianyou was seriously ill, he still represented China at the International Conference on the Far Eastern Railway in February 1919.
At the meeting, he stood up to defend the rights and interests of the national railway, and refuted the Japanese representative's vain attempt to occupy the management of China's North Manchurian Railway, and finally won China's first management right of the Middle East Railway.
During the meeting, Zhan Tianyou participated in heated debates during the day, and buried himself in researching proposals at night, which eventually led to the ** of the old disease.
On his way back to China, he climbed the Great Wall for the last time and left behind a magnificent sentence expressing his wish that after his death, he would become a railroad track on the land of China.
Zhan Tianyou died on April 24, 1919, at the age of 58.
In 2016, the start of China's new generation of Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway was witnessed, and the century-old veteran Zhan Tianyou could finally put down his heavy work and take a good rest.
On the occasion of the centenary of Zhan Tianyou's death, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway was officially opened in 2019. The older generation of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway did not withdraw from the historical stage, but was rebuilt into a heritage park for future generations to permanently commemorate this great project.
In the park, that sightseeing train was named "Zhan Tianyou".