The Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station

The Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station

The Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station was originally the waiting hall of the old Tianjin West Railway Station. It is located at No. 1 Xizhanqian Street, Hongqiao District, Tianjin. Construction began in August 1909, and it commenced operation on December 14, 1910. The architectural style is German Neoclassical. From September 2009 to May 2010, the Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station was relocated to its current site using a sliding friction method and was lifted as a whole by 3.6 meters. In the future, it will be permanently preserved as a railway museum. In 2013, it was listed as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station is a three-story brick-concrete structure with a semi-basement, covering a construction area of 1,900 square meters. The building faces south with its main façade protruding in the center, forming a convex shape. The entrance porch features four circular columns, flanked by stairways and bottle-shaped railings, all constructed from bluestone.

During the construction of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, to protect this cultural relic, on September 24, 2009, the Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station was relocated to a new site using a sliding friction method—this was the first relocation project of a brick-concrete structure building in Tianjin. The first phase involved moving it 135 meters south; on October 23, the second phase moved it 40 meters east; at 11:00 AM on November 9, the Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station completed its relocation to the foundation of the new site. On May 4, 2010, the building entered the overall lifting phase, during which 98 jacks were used to lift the main building by 3.6 meters. The Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station will be permanently preserved as a railway museum and has become one of the landmark buildings in the urban sub-center of the Tianjin West Railway Station area.

The Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station is a uniquely distinctive German-style building that has been well-preserved among China’s railway hub stations and serves as a witness to the development history of China’s railways.

In May 2013, the Main Building of Tianjin West Railway Station 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