So the Beijing subway is going all electric, getting rid of the old paper tickets. Finally. Yeah, alright, it’s been bloody obvious for a while, what with the necessary equipment being installed in the stations. But this article by 新京报/The Beijing News’ Zuo Lin suggests the system is just about all ready to go and will be open for business on May 17.

Anyway, I don’t really want to translate it, or even read the whole thing, because there’s a big, huge, long post involving a lot of translation that I started on Saturday, which was interrupted by the HSK, and for which I’m trying to find the energy to finish.

Yep, definitely got to get myself down to Qianmen in the next couple of weeks to have a look around.

And yes, I’m running with Micah‘s translation “clang-clang cars”, because it does make more sense. 新京报/The Beijing News’ Wang Cheng is back on the scene, and this article has cool shots, again by TBN’s Han Meng, of the interiors of the trams, which look beautifully retro:

But there’s a problem:

 铛铛车试跑 动力将改进

Clang-clang car test run.  Power needs to be improved

车内空调、电视等设备已通过测试，车厢内采用生态木地板、实木坐椅

Onboard aircon, TV and other equipment have already passed testing, ecological wood flooring and real wood benches used in the cabin

昨天，铛铛车“前门一号”和“前门二号”分别试跑了50米，因出站遇斜坡比较费劲，北京地铁车辆厂工作人员表示下一步将做加大电车牵引力的改进。

Yesterday, the clang-clang cars “Qianmen No. 1” and “Qianmen No. 2” had separate test runs of 50 metres, and because they met a rise requiring more power leaving the station, Beijing Subway Car Factory workers said the next step would be to improve the trams’ traction force.

昨天下午，工人们仍在修缮和更换被“铛铛车”碾裂的大理石和汉白玉路基，与此同时，停靠在“正阳桥”牌坊东西两侧的“前门一号”和“前门二号”车里，技术人员也在对车内设备进行调试，随后做试运行，分别从车站往南驶出50米后折返回。

Yesterday afternoon, workers were still repairing and replacing the marble and white marble roadbed that had been cracked under the “clang-clang cars”, at the same time, inside “Qianmen No. 1” and “Qianmen No. 2” stopped at the east and west ends of the “Zhengyang Bridge” archway, technical staff were debugging the equipment in the trams, then doing a test run with each tram separately driving south for 50 metres then returning.

北京地铁车辆厂一工作人员称，“铛铛车”出站拐弯处出现一个小斜坡，经过时比较费劲，下一步将考虑对电车牵引力做加大改进。车里的空调、移动电视等设备目前已顺利通过测试。

A worker from the Beijing Subway Car Factory said the “clang-clang cars” met a slight rise as they turned out of the station for which they needed more power to pass, and the next step would be to consider how to increase the traction power of the trams. The onboard aircon mobile TV and other equipment have already successfully passed tests.

昨天，“铛铛车”试跑结束后，工人开始给车厢里地板做装修，铺上了黑色的木地板。北京地铁车辆厂一工作人员称，两辆车里的地板全用生态木铺设，而两排黄色的坐椅也采用实木制作。

Yesterday, after the test run of the “clang-clang cars”, workers begin installing  the flooring in the cabins, laying black wooden flooring. A worker from the Beijing Subway Car Factory said that all the flooring laid in the two trams was ecological wood, and the two rows of yellow wooden benches were also made from real wood.

据北京地铁车辆厂工作人员介绍，昨天是“铛铛车”调试的第一天，以后还陆续对电车充电器等设备进行调试。

According to a worker from the Beijing Subway Car Factory, yesterday was the first day of debugging the “clang-clang cars”, and later equipment such as the trams’ recharging equipment would be debugged.

 And dammit, I get half-way through this then nciku craps out again! After a day of unobstructed use!

I assume that be “ecological wood” they mean sustainably harvested wood. Interesting, then, that the article makes the distinction between the “ecological” wooden floors and the “real” wood benches. Should we take this to mean that the wood for the benches was torn from some old-growth tropical hardwood forest in blatant violation of all principles of sustainable, environmentally-friendly forest management? I hope not.

And I hope they manage to get some more power into those trams. They may be all cool and retro, but it’s just plain embarrassing if they can’t even get over a small bump when Shanghai is planning 70 km/h trams.

No, it’s not just trams, but a railway museum, too. And this article is a couple of days old, but I’ve had trouble connecting to nciku (apparently because I’m on a university network, and nciku runs on another of the backbones of the Chinese internet, and the two don’t always cooperate so well- or something like that (could this also explain why things like Baidu Baike can take such a long time to load?)) and my good dictionary was stuck in the office (poor sod- I’ve rescued him, though). Anyway, after that post on the Qianmen trams, I came across this article on Qianlongwang about establishing a new railway museum in the old railway station. A much more appropriate use for the building than a shopping centre, as it currently is.

前门火车站将“变身”博物馆

Qianmen Railway Station will “turn into” a museum

位于天安门广场东南角的京奉铁路正阳门东车站旧址（俗称前门火车站），这座人们熟悉的老车站商城，将作为北京铁路博物馆于今年8月1日对观众正式开放。目前，前门老车站正裹着一层严严实实的绿色保护网，在展陈布置前接受一次全面的修缮。

Situated at the southeast corner of Tiananmen Square, the former site of the Jingfeng Railway Zhengyangmen East Station (commonly called Qianmen Railway Station), this Old Station Shopping Centre familiar to the people will serve as the Beijing Railway Museum, formally opening to the public on 1 August this year. At present, Qianmen Old Station is wrapped tightly in a layer of green protective netting, being renovated before the arrangement of exhibitions.

据参与博物馆筹建的首都铁路公关协会工作人员介绍，筹建中的北京铁路博物馆展馆有地上三层和地下一层，一层规划为固定展览《中国铁路百年发展史》，京张铁 路、京奉铁路，清政府与铁路将是展览重点。二层为固定展览《改革开放30年中国铁路现代化发展成就展》，我国几次铁路提速以来的现代化装备实物或模型等将 是展览重点。

According to a worker with the Capital Railway Public Relations Organisation establishing the museum, the Beijing Railway Museum under construction will have three floors above ground and one below ground. The first floor is planned to hold the fixed exhibition “History of 100 Years of Development of Chinese Railways”, with the Jingzhang and Jingfeng Railways, and the Qing government and railways as the key points of the exhibit. The second floor will hold the fixed exhibition “Exhibition of the Modernisation, Development and Accomplishments of the Chinese Railways over the 30 Years of Reform and Opening Up”, key points of this exhibition covering the modernisation of equipment and models since the speeds on China’s railways have been raised several times.

一台动车组的模拟驾驶舱将出现在二层展区，这台驾驶舱的模拟时速最高可达350公里。在一层展区，中国人制造的第一台蒸汽机车“龙号”机车的等大复原模型 将展示，铺设在“龙号”机车模型下面的铁轨取材自京郊延庆的康庄，是从詹天佑设计监修的第一条中国自建铁路———京张铁路上整体截下的一段，还刻有 “1908”的字样。

In the exhibition area on the second floor there will be a simulated train crew’s control compartment, whose highest simulated speed will reach 350 km/h. On the first floor exhibition area, a restored model of the first steam engine built by Chinese people, the locomotive “Dragon”, will be displayed, and the rails the locomotive “Dragon” sits on will be taken from Kangzhuang in the Beijing suburb of Yanqing, from China’s first self-built railroad, designed by Zhan Tianyou- a section of the Jingzhang Railway, still bearing the number “1908”.

目前，筹建中的北京铁路博物馆已开始陆续接收来自全国各地的参展展品。

Currently, the Beijing Railway Museum still under construction is receiving exhibits one after the other from every corner of China.

新闻内存

News memory

　　前门老站记录中国铁路百年历史

Qianmen Old Station records China’s hundred years of railway history

北京人俗称的前门老火车站，它真正的名字叫“正阳门东车站”，只要到过天安门广场的人可能都曾从它门前经过。该建筑位于天安门广场东南角，为欧式建筑，始建于1901年（光绪27年），落成于1906年，至今已有百余年历史。

What Beijingers commonly call Qianmen Old Railway Station is in fact called “Zhengyangmen East Station”, quite possibly all those who have been to Tiananmen Square have all passed by its doors. Construction of this European-style building situated on the southeast corner of Tiananmen Square began in 1901 (27th year of Guangxu), and was completed in 1906, and already has over a hundred years of history behind it.

建成后，前门老火车站成了当时全国最大的火车站，车站站房建筑面积3500平方米。站内三座站台，长度377米，候车室总面积达1500平方米，是当时中 国最大的交通枢纽。此后，该建筑经历了从清末民初、北洋政府、日伪统治、国民党统治到新中国成立的不同历史阶段，站名从正阳门东站、前门站、北平站、北平 东站到北京站，经历多次演变，至1959年9月15日，新北京站开通运营，这座建筑完成了它作为铁路车站的历史使命。

When it was built, Qianmen Old Station was the biggest railway station in China at that time, covering an area of 3500 square metres. With three  377-metre long platforms and a 1500-square metre waiting room, it was the biggest transportation hub in China at the time. Later, passed through the different stages of history from the end of the Qing and early days of the Republic, the Beiyang Warlords government, Japanese puppet rule, Kuomintang rule, through to the establishment of New China, and the name of the station has changed many times from Zhengyangmen East Station through Qianmen Station, Beiping Station, Beiping East Station to Beijing Station, until 15 September 1959 when the new Beijing Station was opened, bringing this building’s historical mission as a railway station to an end.

上世纪60年代初，老车站首先被改造成铁道部的科技馆，不久之后又被收归北京铁路局，改建成北京铁路工人文化宫，候车室则被改造成剧场使用多年。直至上世纪90年代，建成老车站商城。

In the early 60s of last century, the old station first became a science and technology institute of the Railways Ministry, but before long was returned to the Beijing Railway Bureau and became the Beijing Railway Workers Cultural Palace, with the waiting room being used as a theatre for many years. In the 90s of the last centure it became the Old Station Shopping Centre.

I found two irritating little problems in this:

1. What is the 京奉铁路? At first I read it as Jing-Qin and assumed it ran to Qinhuangdao, but then I realised it was fèng, and I started looking around. I can’t find anything about a 京奉铁路, though, and I can’t find a meaning for 奉 that refers to a place. I thought, well, maybe it is mean to be 京秦铁路 and somehow got mixed up in some non-pinyin-based IME- the characters are pretty similar, after all. No, clearly not.  My question was answered almost by accident. Read below.
2. I’m assuming “清末民初” refers to “the end of the Qing and early days of the Republic”. I couldn’t find any clear reference, though.

As for Zhan Tianyou and the Jingzhang Railway, my new book Filming as War Clouds Loom in 1937- 6000km with a Cinecamera by Sun Mingjing, translated by Sun Jianqiu (Beijing, Foreign Languages Press, 2006), had some pretty interesting words:

The railway line between Nankou and Qinglongqiao (meaning Blue Dragon Bridge) slopes upward. The locomotive was placed at the tail end of the train for fear that carriages might get disconnected and be left behind. There are several forked byrails along the section for the train to branch off in case it can’t move any further. The far end of each branch line is much higher, so when the train starts to move again, it can rapidly accelerate down the slope to climb a further steeper one ahead. Normal trains with massive locomotives have no need to use the branch lines. These forking branches are designed for extraordinarily heavy trains and also as a necessary safety measure.

[…..]

The story of the construction of the Pingsui Railway is a long one. In 1898, when Russia obtained the authority to construct the Jinghan Railway, it demanded from the Qing Government the authority to extend the railway line all the way to Kulun Kyakhta in Russia. Britain objected, but didn’t speak straight out. Instead, it persuaded the Qing Government to allow it to construct the Jing-Zhang Railway (from Beiping to Zhangjiakou) using British capital. In 1905, guranteed by the British government, the Qing government borrowed five million yuan from the Jing-Feng [Beijing-Shenyang] Railway and some railway companies inside and outside the Shanhaiguan Pass and began to construct the railway. However, after the survey work was completed the foreign experts all agreed that due to the mountain ridges it would be a difficult project that would cost at least 100 million yuan [about U.S. $12.5 million]. In answer to the knotty problem, Mr. Zhan Tianyou avoided the digging of long tunnels but designed these branch lines instead. Though the slope is much steeper than the normal standard, it is still safe for the trains. The most ingenious part of his design is the big curve at the Qinglongqiao Station. When the northbound train from Nankou arrives at Qinglongqiao with no more slopes ahead, it turns toward the west instead of travelling further north, following a route in the shape of a letter “Y”. Then it goes through the Badaling tunnel, which is more than 300 m long, and slopes down to Kangzhuang. The line after Kangzhuang is smooth, and massive locomotives can complete their journeys with ease.

(pages 91 – 92)

All of which I think is pretty cool.

And there’s more news on Yanqing and trains, but that will have to wait. I need lunch.