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Review for February, 1919, and therefore presents a thoroughly up-to-date view of the situation with respect to the lines actually in operation.1

CLASSIFICATION OF EXISTING LINES.

The total railway mileage of all classes of lines in all parts of China at present is slightly more than 6,500 miles. This does not include street railways or tramways, which will be referred to later. These railways can be divided into two general classes-first, loan-built railways owned or controlled by the Chinese; second, "concessioned" or foreign railways that have been built with foreign capital and are now subject to foreign control and operation.

The Chinese railways can again be divided into four groups, as follows: First, the Chinese Government railways, under the direction of the Ministry of Communications; second, private (stock-owned) railways; third, provincial railways; and fourth, industrial railways, usually owned by the industries served. The foreign railways were all built for strategic or political reasons, and at the time of their construction their commercial utility was a matter of secondary importance. Both the South Manchuria and Shantung railways have assumed in recent years much importance commercially; this is also true of the Chinese Eastern Railway and will be increasingly so regardless of what the developments may be in Russia proper.

Following is a tabulation of all the Chinese railways, following the above classification. This table shows the English name, the generally used Chinese name, the miles of line, the gauge of the track, the source of the capital, and the Provinces in which the railways are located. A special effort was made to include practically all the commercial railways in China. The mileage given in most cases was taken from the annual reports for the railways themselves or from data obtained from the Ministry of Communications, but in a few instances the mileage shown has been approximated. At present 28 miles of line of 2-foot 5-inch gauge are being constructed in Yunnan to connect with the French Yunnan line at Pechechi, and a further extension of this line, for a distance of about 45 miles, is contemplated. This line is being built to develop tin mines at Kotcheou.

GROUP NO. 1: CHINESE GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS.

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1 This map was inserted by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Trade Commissioner Rhea notes an inaccuracy with respect to the Omur Railway. Blagovyestchensk is not on the main line but is connected with it by a branch.

Meter.
Ft. In.

95 4 344

83 4 8

Anglo-Chinese.

Honan.

su.

203 4
178 4

81

Anglo-Chinese..

8 Anglo-Chinese..

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GROUP NO. 1: CHINESE GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS-Continued.

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GROUP NO. 2: CHINESE PRIVATE (STOCK-OWNED) RAILWAYS.

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GROUP NO. 5: "CONCESSIONED" (FOREIGN) RAILWAYS.

Kirin and Heilungkiang (allin Manchuria). Shengking and Kirin (all in Manchuria). Shantung.

5 0 Russian.....

Japanese...

4 8 Sino Japanese....

2287

Meter.

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Total Group 5.....

2,356

1 Japanese names.

2 Does not include the 248 miles of this line in French Indo-China.

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This seems an opportune place to call attention to the small amount of railway of other than 4 feet 8 inches gauge. The latter may well be termed the standard gauge of China, particularly as regards the Chinese Government Railways. Only 168 miles out of a total of 4,251 miles of commercial railways (foreign and industrial railways not included), or only about 4 per cent, is of other than the standard gauge; this 168 miles is all meter gauge, and most of it was built with the mistaken idea of building a cheap line. This fortunate result could hardly have been expected in view of the fact that the lines were built by engineers of many different nationalities and with different kinds of materials and equipment.

PROPOSED NEW LINES.

The writer's investigation did not contemplate an attempt to analyze the proposals for new lines, but it seems proper at this point to outline briefly the most important projects that are in course of construction or for which fairly definite agreements have been made. The most important of these are the Hukuang Railways (Four Nations Loan), the Pukow-Sinyang Railway (Chinese Central Railways, Ltd., British), the Shasi-Shingyifu Railway (Pauling & Co., Ltd., British), and the Siems-Carey (American) projects, as well as the extensions of the Pienlo Railway (French), the Tao-Ching Railway (Peking Syndicate, British), and the Peking-Suiyuan Railway (Chinese). The following sections outline the present status of the first four, and the last two will be referred to later in connection with the existing lines. There are a great many other projects, but most of them have had only paper consideration or reconnoissance at the most. To give any considerable number of these even passing mention would take a great amount of space and would be inadvisable for the reason that very few of these projects are likely to be carried out without first being considerably modified. The extensions of the Kirin-Changchun and the Ssupingkai-Chengchiatun lines will be mentioned in connection with Manchuria and the South Manchuria Railway (Japanese), by which they are actually controlled, although nominally Chinese Government Railways.

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