The Nankou to Badaling section of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway

The Nankou to Badaling section of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway

The Nankou to Badaling section of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Nankou to Badaling section, where the Qinglongqiao Railway Station is located, is one of the most well-preserved stretches of the century-old Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. Within this 20-kilometer stretch, there are five historic stations: Nankou, Dongyuan, Juyongguan, Sanbao, and Qinglongqiao. As early as 2008, the Qinglongqiao Railway Station was designated as an industrial heritage site by the Capital Museum. The old station building and the tomb of Zhan Tianyou have been restored and preserved, and the site is open to the public as a patriotic education base.

While visiting the old stations along the Nankou to Badaling section, reporters found that Qinglongqiao Station is currently the best-preserved century-old railway station. According to Station Master Yang Cunxin, although passenger services have long ceased at the station, trains still pass through daily. Harmony bullet trains on the S2 line and some regular trains make technical stops here (where the front of the train becomes the back and vice versa, allowing the train to reverse direction on the zigzag track and descend the mountain, using extended distance to reduce the climbing gradient). At this station, visitors can also see the endpoint of the famous “zigzag railway” built by Zhan Tianyou. Every day, many tourists hike several kilometers along mountain paths to visit this site.

The black railing next to the statue of Zhan Tianyou is welded from the inner heating pipes of the “Mallet-type” steam locomotives used on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway in 1909. Three sections of railway track, cast respectively in Belgium in 1898, in Britain in 1905, and in Tennessee, USA, in 1915, lie quietly in the backyard. Hand-operated switches, oil lamp bases, and old signs written in Suzhou numerals are all valuable relics from over a century ago.

In May 2013, the Nankou to Badaling section of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was listed as part of the seventh group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further reading:

· Seventh Group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units