China people have known about railways since the late 1930s. Lixi said in the "Introduction to Britain": Britain "has built a dry road (car power), and it is feasible to travel by train at one time." Guo recorded the railway situation in the west in detail in Trade General Records, and proposed that the railway "should also be the law of China". Hong Rengan even put forward a plan to build a railway in the new chapter of senior minister: "1 1 before the province, 1 1 highway is the national context".
/kloc-In the middle of the 9th century, after the Second Opium War, western powers knocked on the door of China. However, China is a vast country with traffic jams. In order to pursue more benefits, western businessmen and officials, mainly from Britain and the United States, tried to build railways in China by various means such as suggestions, requests and inducements. However, many things brought to China by western colonists are aggressive or symbols of colonialism. Therefore, although the westernization bureaucrats saw the advantages of railways in the westernization movement, they resolutely opposed the construction of railways for the sake of safeguarding sovereignty.
At that time, Qing officials believed that there were three disadvantages in building railways: first, it was beneficial for foreigners to invade the country; Second, "sick people" occupy a lot of farmland, demolish houses and graves and destroy geomantic omen; The third is "unemployment". After the completion of the railway, boatmen and shops along the line will have no livelihood, and bandits will surely gather together.
Western businessmen designed a scam to build a railway.
Foreigners doing business in Shanghai complain that the Huangpu River is shallow and it is inconvenient to load and unload goods. In the fifth year of Tongzhi (1866), the British minister Ali made a request to build a railway between Shanghai Concession and Wusongkou to solve the problem of inconvenient loading and unloading of goods along the Huangpu River. But as usual, this request was rejected.
Foreign businessmen who are bent on making money in China have come to the conclusion after hitting a wall again and again: "It is futile to get the official permission from the China government", and only "formally buying land first, and then suddenly building a railway, can it be tolerated by the China authorities."
In the 11th year of Tongzhi (1872), olivier Bradford, the US Vice Consul in Shanghai, established Wusong Road Company, and applied to Shen Bingcheng of Shanghai Road for land acquisition to build an "ordinary road". Shen Bingcheng was kept in the dark and approved their application for land purchase. In the second year of Guangxu (1876) and February of 14, the trial track of 1 km was paved, and the "pilot" locomotive was put on the line for trial operation by six laborers, which was successful. When the whistle sounded, the scam designed by the United States and Britain was exposed.