In the late 19th century, colonial powers were locked in a race to build a railway to China

Post by **Clutch Cargo** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 6:30 pm

Interesting read this and some great pics of engineering feats..

Britain and France held grand ambitions to exert control over the Southeast Asia region. The construction of highly ambitious railway lines to access Chinese markets was deemed the answer, and the "Race to Yunnan" was on.

With the opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1869, travel times between Europe and Asia were cut in half, and China represented a massive new market for European manufactured wares.

Except there was a problem.

The fastest way to carry goods in and out of the “Middle Kingdom” was via the four-thousand mile-long Yangtze River, and the Chinese imperial government extracted tolls called likin all along its length.

The universally-acknowledged solution was to build a railroad, but railway construction required large up-front investments, and that kind of capital was hard to come by without official backing.

Enter the British and French governments, which would end up spending vast fortunes building impressive railways in the hopes of one day accessing the markets of Southwestern China.

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/the-race ... 3Zrzdk1DPA

Doc67 · Post by **Doc67** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 8:12 pm

clutchcargo wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 6:30 pm Interesting read this and some great pics of engineering feats..

Britain and France held grand ambitions to exert control over the Southeast Asia region. The construction of highly ambitious railway lines to access Chinese markets was deemed the answer, and the "Race to Yunnan" was on.

With the opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1869, travel times between Europe and Asia were cut in half, and China represented a massive new market for European manufactured wares.

Except there was a problem.

The fastest way to carry goods in and out of the “Middle Kingdom” was via the four-thousand mile-long Yangtze River, and the Chinese imperial government extracted tolls called likin all along its length.

The universally-acknowledged solution was to build a railroad, but railway construction required large up-front investments, and that kind of capital was hard to come by without official backing.

Enter the British and French governments, which would end up spending vast fortunes building impressive railways in the hopes of one day accessing the markets of Southwestern China.

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/the-race ... 3Zrzdk1DPA

spending vast fortunes building impressive railways

Well, the UK is still at it, just on a less grandiose scale.

While the UK is busy going broke by putting everyone on the dole indefinitely, they have quietly given the go ahead for HS2, thus wasting £100billion they haven't got. HS2, the high speed link between London, Birmingham and Manchester, is the technological equivalent, in railroad terms, of a Nokia Blackberry.