Zhan Tianyou in the United States has studied in Weihafen elementary school, crossbow Hafen middle school, and in 1881 graduated from Yale University with honors, and wrote a thesis entitled "the study of dock cranes," was awarded a bachelor's degree, and returned to China in the same year. After returning to China, Zhan Tianyou into the Mawei ship before the school, after completing his studies, sent to the flagship of the Fujian navy "Yangwu" as a gunner, participated in the Mawei sea battle. After the war was transferred to the Huangpu Marine Academy as a teacher.
The road was originally scheduled to be completed in six years, Zhan Tianyou finally two years ahead of schedule on August 11, 1909, the entire line opened to traffic, but also save two hundred and eighty-thousand two hundred and fifty-thousand silver. The triumphant completion of the Jingzhang Road is the victory of the Chinese people, but also the full expression of the patriotic spirit of Chinese patriotic intellectuals.
After the completion of the Beijing-Zhangzhou Road, Zhan Tianyou should be hired by the Guangdong Province, Guangdong-Hankow Railway Company, in 1910 as the company's prime minister, and in May 1912 also served as the Han-Guangdong-Chuan Railway Office. Due to the corruption and incompetence of the Chinese government, the imperialist competition in China, so that the patriotic, genius engineer could not show his talent, anxiety to the extreme. Finally, due to exhaustion into illness, in April 24, 1919 at 3:30 p.m. died in Hankow, aged 59 years.
In 1888, Zhan Tianyou by his old classmate Kwong Sun Mou's recommendation, to the China Railway Company as an engineer. Was annihilated for seven years before Zhan Tianyou had the opportunity to devote himself to the cause of the motherland's railroad. At this time when the Tianjin - Tangshan Railway construction, he did not want to live in Tianjin for a long time, he personally visited the site, and workers with the **** bitter, the results only eighty days of time on the completion of the opening of the train. However, Li Hongzhang to the British Jinda's credit on the work, and promote Jinda as chief engineer. Zhan Tianyou's credit was thus plagiarized.
In 1890, the Qing government and repair the Guanzhou Railway (now the Beijing-Shenyang Railway), to Jinda as chief engineer. 1892 project to the Luanhe Bridge, many countries want to tout this business, Jinda of course, the British first, but the British Karkes to build the bridge and failed. Japanese and German contractors also failed. As the deadline for delivery is approaching, Jinda had to turn to Zhan Tianyou. Zhan Tianyou exhaustive analysis of the reasons for the failure of various countries, and the bottom of the Luanhe River geological soil after thorough measurement and research, decided to change the pile site, using the traditional Chinese method to Chinese divers to dive into the bottom of the river, with machine operation, the victory completed the task of piling, built the Luanhe River Bridge. In 1894, the British Engineering Society elected Zhan Tianyou as a member of the Society.
Since then, Zhan Tianyou has led the construction of the Beijing-Tianjin Road, Pingli Road (Pingxiang to Liling) and other railroads.
Yuan Shikai, in order to curry favor with the Naras, in 1902 requested the construction of a new easy railroad (Gaobeidian to Yixian) dedicated to the royal family to pay homage to their ancestors. Train to the ancestors, Narra naturally happy. In order not to miss the ancestral use in 1903, ordered Yuan Shikai in six months to complete. Yuan Shikai ordered Zhan Tianyou to be the chief engineer. Although the value of this road is not great, but is the beginning of the Chinese people since the construction of railroads, so Zhan Tianyou is still very important. Zhan Tianyou completely abandoned the foreigners at that time must be in the roadbed after the completion of air-drying a year before laying tracks of the conventional, only four months to save the cost of building a new easy railroad. This greatly encouraged the Chinese to build their own railroads and laid a good foundation for the construction of the Beijing-Zhangzhou Railway.
Zhangjiakou for Beijing to Inner Mongolia's key, north and south travelers and businessmen to and from the porous road, has always been for the soldiers must fight, so the Beijing-Zhangzhou Railway has an important economic value and political value. When the Qing court to repair the news of the Beijing-Zhang Road, the largest force in China, Britain is determined to win, depending on the Great Wall to the north of its sphere of influence of the Tsarist Russia vowed not to give up, the two sides argued, and finally reached an agreement: if the Qing court does not borrow foreign debt, do not use the foreign craftsmen, all the way by the Chinese people to repair this road, the two sides can not reach out. In this way, the Qing government put an end to the idea of seeking help from the foreigners and focus on self-maintenance.
In May 1905, the Beijing-Zhangzhou Railway Bureau and the establishment of the Bureau of Engineering, Chen Zhaochang for the General Manager, Zhan Tianyou for the Office of the Office of the Chief Engineer, in 1906 Zhan Tianyou was promoted to the Office of the General Manager and Chief Engineer. Zhan Tianyou clearly know the enormity of this task, he first had to resist cynicism from all sides: some people said he was "self-importance", "but spend a few money just", and even said he was "bold and arrogant! He was even called "audacious". He wrote to his American teacher, Mrs. Nosopo, "If the Jing-Zhang project fails, it will not only be my misfortune, the misfortune of Chinese engineers, but also bring great losses to China. In my acceptance of this task before and after, many foreigners blatantly claimed that Chinese engineers can not bear the Beijing-Zhangzhou line of stone and caves of the arduous project, but I insisted that I engineering. Fully embodies the patriotic heart of Chinese intellectuals and national responsibility.
Zhan Tianyou surveyed three routes, the second detour too far for the undesirable. The third is today's Fengsha line. Due to the limited funding from the Qing court, time is running out, Zhan Tianyou decided to use the first route, that is, from Fengtai north to Xizhimen, Shahe, through the Nankou, Juyongguan, Badaling, Huailai, Jimingyi, Xuanhua to Zhangjiakou, a total length of 360 miles. The whole line of the difficulties in the Guan ditch, this area of stacked mountains, cliffs, engineering difficulties at that time for the country did not, the world is rare; slope is very great, Nankou and Badaling height difference of 180 feet. Zhan Tianyou divided the whole line into three sections: Fengtai to Nankou for the first section, Nankou to Kangzhuang for the second section, the rest for the third section.
On September 4, 1905, construction officially began, and on December 12, track laying began. On the very first day of track laying, one of the hook chains of an engineering train broke, causing a derailment. This became the evidence that the Chinese people can not build their own railroads, all kinds of slander and libel came thick and fast. But Zhan Tianyou did not panic, but instead calmly thought: this road is extremely steep, the connectivity between each carriage is not solid, the accident will be difficult to avoid. To this end, he used the automatic hook method, finally solved the problem.
September 30, 1906 the first section of the project all opened to traffic, the second section of the project began at the same time. The difficulty lay in the second section, which first had to open the four tunnels of Juyongguan, Wuguitou, Shifosi and Badaling, the longest of which was the Badaling Tunnel of 1,092 meters. This requires not only precise calculations and correct command, but also new types of openers, ventilators and pumps. The former was not a problem for Zhan Tianyou, but the latter was not available in China at that time, and only relied on the hands of the workers, the degree of difficulty can be imagined. They overcame all the difficulties and finally completed the second section of the project in September 1908," he said.
The third section of the project was second only to the Guan Gou in difficulty, and first encountered the Huailai Bridge, the longest on the Beijing-Zhangzhou Road, which was built of seven 100-foot-long steel girders. Thanks to Zhan Tianyou's correct direction, it was completed in time. on April 2, 1909 the train passed through to Xiahuayuan. Although the section from Xiahuayuan to Jimingyi mine turnoff was not long, the project was extremely difficult. The right side of the Sheep River, the left side of the rocky mountains, the mountains to open a six-foot deep channel, the mountains to be padded seven miles long riverbed. Zhan Tianyou that the mountain to open the stone to pad the riverbed under the mountain. In order to prevent the impact of flash floods on the roadbed, and protected with cement blocks, the third section of the work was completed successfully.
For engineering difficulties, Zhan Tianyou never put in the eye, for man-made obstacles but make Zhan Tianyou worried to the extreme. Qinghe there is a person called Guangzhai, is a former Taoist officer, relatives of the royal family Zaize, the dynasty and the countryside are powerful. Railroad just through its graveyard, he led a crowd of trouble, stopping the project, and privately promised a heavy bribe, asking for a diversion. The Ministry of Posts and Communications did not dare to ask. Here in the north is Zheng Wang grave, south is the eunuchs grave, west is the father of Na La's Gui Gong grave, to change the road I do not know how much time and money to be wasted. Zhan Tianyou to bribery as shameful, never change the road, even to stay and go to fight. Finally, because five ministers were bombed in the ocean, Zai Ze is too scared to hear about foreign affairs, Guangzhai only because of the loss of backing and agreed to pass through the grave outside the wall.
Narrah's for the repair of the Summer Palace every year tens of millions of gold, only not willing to pay for road construction. Beijing and Zhang Railway funds rely on the winnings of the railroads inside and outside of Guanzhou, and this money is controlled in the hands of the British HSBC, just into the second section of the project, HSBC deliberately make things difficult to delay the payment of rates, resulting in lost time. Zhan Tianyou is not good at camping in the rich and powerful, more ashamed to meet the foreigners, and therefore resentful to the extreme.
The imperialists do not want to seize the road, the project began, the Japanese Yu Gong Keijiro petitioned Yuan Shikai said: the Chinese people are unable to repair this road, rather than hiring the Japanese technician is more secure. The British Jinda also came to Japan to say. Zhan Tianyou categorically refused on the grounds that no foreigner would be appointed to this road. After the Juyongguan Road project began, groups of foreigners often came to spy on the project under the name of hunting, hoping that the project would fail in order to take advantage of the danger. Zhan Tianyou with excellent results for the Chinese out of this breath.