Xiaguan Railway Station

Xiaguan Railway Station

Xiaguan Railway Station is a cultural heritage site protected by Nanjing Municipality.

Xiaguan Railway Station was initially called Nanjing Station on the Shanghai–Nanjing Railway. After the Nationalist Government established its capital in Nanjing, it was renamed Nanjing Xiaguan Station. During the Wang Jingwei puppet regime, it was briefly known as Nanjing Station. By the end of 1968, after the completion of the new Nanjing Railway Station on the north side of Xuanwu Lake, it was renamed Nanjing West Station.

Xiaguan Railway Station was first built in the 31st year of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty (1905). Designed according to the unified specifications of a "first-class station building," it originally had 18 small and large single-story rooms, with a total construction area of 520 square meters. Facilities included a main hall, ticket office, telegraph room, stationmaster’s office, postal office, and goods agent’s office. The waiting room consisted of only two small sections with a wooden roof covered in corrugated galvanized iron sheets. There were three platforms, measuring 216 meters, 229 meters, and 203 meters in length respectively. In 1930, the Ministry of Railways of the Nationalist Government reconstructed the station. The rebuilt station featured a three-story central section and two-story wings, with an oval-shaped station hall in the middle and platform canopies overhead. In 1947, the Nationalist Government expanded Xiaguan Railway Station. The expansion project was designed by architect Yang Tingbao of the Kwan, Chu and Yang Engineering Company and constructed by the Xu Shunxing Construction Firm, completing the same year. The expansion added a large U-shaped building enclosing the original station, with two-story wings on the north and south sides and a high-rise arched entrance hall on the front, featuring doors 15 meters high. The entire structure was made of reinforced concrete, covering an area of 18,700 square meters and capable of accommodating over 4,000 passengers. The south side of the hall housed luggage and ticket offices, along with one ticket checkpoint and auxiliary entrance. The north side included VIP rooms, postal facilities, and exits. As the expansion was carried out in sections, the original station facilities were preserved and utilized, minimizing disruption to normal operations and saving on construction costs. In 1948, an additional platform was built. In 1949, when the Kuomintang army collapsed, the central hall of the station was damaged. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Nanjing Municipal Government restored the station, constructing an 1,800-square-meter waiting hall. In June 2006, it was designated as a municipal-level cultural heritage site.

On January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen arrived in Nanjing from Shanghai to assume the provisional presidency of the Republic of China via Xiaguan Railway Station. On June 23, 1946, over 100,000 citizens of Shanghai held an anti-civil war, pro-peace rally, electing a delegation of nine representatives including Ma Xulun, Hu Juewen, Yan Baohang, and Lei Jieqiong to go to Nanjing as the Shanghai People's Peace Delegation to appeal to the Nationalist Government. When the delegation arrived at Xiaguan Railway Station that evening, Chen Shuping, head of the Investigation and Statistics Office of the Jinpu Railway and a top agent of the Kuomintang secret service (CC), gathered thugs disguised as refugees from northern Jiangsu to violently attack the delegates. Several members were injured, including delegation head Ma Xulun. League for the Protection of Democracy representatives who came to welcome the delegation, such as Ye Duyi, along with reporters Gao Ji from Ta Kung Pao and Pu Xixiu from Xinmin Bao who were covering the event, were also severely beaten, resulting in the internationally shocking "Xiaguan Tragedy." It took over five hours of violence before military and police finally arrived to restore order, transporting the delegates to the Nanjing Garrison Command by truck. Only late at night, after strong protests and efforts from various parties, were the injured delegates sent to the Central Hospital for treatment. Upon hearing the news, Zhou Enlai, Dong Biwu, and Deng Yingchao of the Chinese Communist Party delegation, who were in Nanjing negotiating with the Kuomintang, immediately went to the hospital to offer condolences and lodged strong protests with the authorities.