May 13 (Government House), June 9, 1881, China's first self-built railway - Tang Xu railway track laying. the 1960s

19, (l $ dj��.��r��) inside the Qing government, represented by Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan, Zuo "Westernization". Under the slogan of "self-force the rich", they advocate learning the science and technology of the West, the founder of modern military industry, but also the founder of Modern mining and industrial and transportation. China's first railway construction in this situation. In order to solve the problem of the Steamship and the Northern Fleet's coal
1877, the Zhili Governor Li Hongzhang send the Steamship General Office of Hongzhang build Kaiping Mines. Hongzhang after field exploration, mine site selected in Kaiping southwest of Tangshan, began to consider the transport of coal. Open Pingmei addition Mineral Bureau for personal use and sell locally, mainly coal sold to Tianjin. Tangshan away from Tianjin, 120 kilometers to transport coal from the land first shipped to Lutai, and then changed to the waterway into the sea by the Dagu to Tianjin. Such transport is very troublesome, but also high Shipment. If by Tangshan lutai build railroads, train coal either reduce transportation trouble, you can also reduce costs, so that the real difficulty lies not in mining, but rather the transport Hongzhang. Therefore, his letter to Li Hongzhang request railway construction Tangshan lutai,; due to lack of funds, contemplated building Tangshan, to Xu gezhuang for some first. Li Hongzhang agreed to this plan, to the Qing government in 1879, played the quasi-, (L $ dj��.c��m) and sent the British engineer Jinda Governor repair. At this time, the die-hards pretext of Tangshan near Tanglin, railway Benz will "shake mausoleum" strongly oppose, in this case, the Qing government withdrew its approval, roads first try failed on this. Since then, Hongzhang intend dug canals in the between Tangshan lutai, Tianjin Jiyun and Lutai phase, trying to land transport to water transport instead, but only dug a 35-kilometer section of the from Xu gezhuang to lutai long, after the steep terrain can not be kaihe. In the case of this dilemma, Zhili Governor Li behest Hongzhang again petitioned the construction of coal to the Light Rail Transit, declared as free from vibration Tanglin without locomotives, traction with horses and mules. Li Hongzhang and do this in the Qing court in active mediation, and finally, the Qing government in the case of extreme reluctance to allow road construction. Thus, road construction to commence in early 1881, and June 9 of the same year, began laying the completion of the project in November, which is China's first self-built railway - Tang Xu Railway. from the Railway East
Tang Xu Tangshan, the southwest to Xu gezhuang, 9.7 km long. Imported by the British 30 pounds per yard light rail, gauge British standard gauge of the same world at that time, has a narrow width, to UK more moderate. By the end of 1881, Tang Xu railway put into use, initially only used horses and mules to act as a locomotive, coal car drag on the rail, and was known as the "carriage Railway. Later, due to full production of the Kaiping mines, traction small, slow carriage railway transportation can not meet the need, in order to solve this problem, the Chinese workers mine the old material according to the design of Jinda successful trial of a 0 - 3-0 light steam locomotive. Workers each engraved with a dragon on both sides of the locomotive, it is called "Dragon." Chinese people self-made locomotives only over a hundred tons, although traction, the structure is relatively simple, but it is fully demonstrated the creativity of the Chinese workers.
Tang Xu Railway is only 9.7 km long, but it is China's first self-built railway, traveling first Chinese-made locomotive, to determine a standard gauge railway in China.