Chinese Eastern Railway
The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (Chinese: trad. 東清鐵路, simp. 东清铁路, Dōngqīng Tiělù; Russian: Китайско-Восточная железная дорога or КВЖД, Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga or KVZhD), also known as the Chinese Far East Railway and Manchurian Railway, is the historical name for a railway across Manchuria (northeastern China). The line was built by Imperial Russia using a concession from Qing China, and linked Chita with Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. The T-shaped line consisted of three branches: the western branch, now the Harbin–Manzhouli Railway, the eastern branch, now the Harbin–Suifenhe Railway, and the southern branch, now part of the Beijing–Harbin Railway, which intersected in Harbin. The railway and the concession, known as the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone, were administered from the city, which grew into a major rail hub.
The southern branch of the CER, known in the West as the South Manchuria Railway, became the locus and partial casus belli for the Russo-Japanese War, the 1929 Sino-Soviet Conflict, and the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Soviet Union handed the CER to the People's Republic of China in 1952.
History of the line
The Chinese Eastern Railway, a single-track line, provided a shortcut for the world's longest railroad, the Trans-Siberian Railway, from near the Siberian city of Chita, across northern inner Manchuria via Harbin to the Russian port of Vladivostok. This route drastically reduced the travel distance required along the originally proposed main northern route to Vladivostok, which lay completely on Russian soil but wasn't completed until a decade after the Manchurian "shortcut".
In 1896 China granted a construction concession through northern Inner Manchuria under the supervision of Vice Minister of Public Works Xu Jingcheng. Work on the CER began in July 1897 along the line Tarskaya (east of Chita) – Hailar – Harbin – Nikolsk-Ussuriski, and accelerated drastically after Russia concluded a twenty-five year lease of Liaodong from China in 1898. Officially, traffic on the line started in November 1901, but regular passenger traffic from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok across the Trans-Siberian railway didn't commence until July 1903.
In 1898, construction of a 550-mile (880-km) spur line, most of which later formed the South Manchuria Railway, began at Harbin, leading southwards through Eastern Manchuria, along the Liaodong Peninsula, to the ice-free deep-water port at Lüshun, which Russia was fortifying and developing into a first-class strategic naval base and marine coaling station for its Far East Fleet and Merchant Marine. This town was known in the west as Port Arthur, and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) was fought largely over who would possess this region and its excellent harbor, as well as whether it would remain open to traders of all nations (Open Door Policy).
The Chinese Eastern Railway was essentially completed in 1902, a few years earlier than the stretch around Lake Baikal. Until the Circumbaikal portion was completed (1904–1905; double-tracked, 1914), goods carried on the Trans-Siberian Railway had to be trans-shipped by ferry almost a hundred kilometers across the lake (from Port Baikal to Mysovaya).
The Chinese Eastern Railway became important in international relations. After the first Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Russia gained the right to build the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria. They had a large army and occupied Northern Manchuria, which was of some concern to the Japanese. Russia pressed China for a "monopoly of rights" in Manchuria, but China reacted to this by an alliance with Japan and the United States against Russia.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Russia lost both the Liaodong Peninsula and much of the South Manchurian branch to Japan. The rail line from Changchun to Lüshun - transferred to the Japanese control - became the South Manchuria Railway.
The Sino-Soviet conflict of 1929 was fought over the administration of the Northern CER.
From August 1945, the CER again came under the joint control of the USSR and China. Somewhat reversing Russia's stinging losses in 1904-1905, after World War II the Soviet government insisted on occupying the Liaodong Peninsula but allowed joint control over the Southern branch with China; all this together received the name of the "Chinese Changchun Railway" (Russian: Кита́йская Чанчу́ньская желе́зная доро́га).
In 1952, the Soviet Union transferred (free of charge) all of its rights to the Chinese Changchun Railway to the People's Republic of China.
The flag of Chinese Eastern Railway is a combination of Chinese and Russian flags. It has changed several times with the political changes of both owners. The first CER flag (1897-1915) was a combination of triangular version Flag of the Qing dynasty and Flag of Russia, with Great Qing East Provinces Railway (大清東省鐵路) in Chinese. The 1915-1925 flag replace the flag of Qing dynasty with a triangular version of Five-colored flag. The flag was changed again in 1925 and 1932, with Flag of Soviet Union and Flag of Manchukuo added.
- Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, 1st edition.
- Sören Urbansky. Kolonialer Wettstreit: Russland, China, Japan und die Ostchinesische Eisenbahn 2008, Campus Publishers, Frankfurt/New York, 250 pp.
- Mara Moustafine. Secrets and Spies: The Harbin Files. A Vintage Book series, Random House, Australia Pty Ltd, 468 pp.
- F.R. Sedwick, (R.F.A.), The Russo-Japanese War, 1909, The Macmillan Company, N.Y., 192 pp.
- Colliers (Ed.), The Russo-Japanese War, 1904, P.F. Collier & Son, New York, 128 pp.
- Guide to the Photograph Album of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
- Views of the Chinese Eastern Railway This album contains 42 photographic prints depicting depots, railroad shops and yards, rolling stock, car interiors, tracks, health resorts, and other views along the line. Captions for the photographs are in Russian, Mandarin, and English.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chinese Eastern Railway.|
- Chinese Eastern Railroad Zone
- History of the line
- “The Chinese Eastern Railway – A Glimpse of History” by Peter Crush. Hong Kong Railway Society web pages: under “English, Members Corner, Feature Articles”. Retrieved January 2009