A mysterious history about Baoji

Baoji was called "Chencang" in ancient times. The allusion of "Building plank roads in the open and building Chencang in secret" comes from here.

In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, an auspicious "stone chicken crow" appeared here. When the emperor was happy, he changed the name of Chencang to Baoji.

Geographically, Baoji is located at the western end of the Guanzhong Plain, at the junction of Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and other provinces. It is an important transportation hub in the northwest region connecting the Central Plains and the southwest. But until the Longhai Railway was accessible, Baoji was just a small inland county in a remote location in Guanzhong.

After the Longhai Railway was built to Baoji, Baoji gradually became a gathering place for industry and commerce in the northwest and developed into an important city in central and western Guanxi. After the outbreak of the all-out Anti-Japanese War in 1937, with the large-scale inward relocation of eastern industrial and commercial enterprises along the Longhai Line, Baoji accelerated its development and gradually became a transportation hub and industrial town in the rear area of ??the Anti-Japanese War. It is a typical representative of the rise of railway transportation hub cities in modern China. one.

In 1941, there were many cars parked on both sides of the streets in Baoji.

First of all, the construction of the Longhai Railway in Shaanxi established Baoji's status as a transportation hub in Guanzhong and even the northwest region. The newly built Baoji Station of Longhai Railway has 4 station lines and 2 cargo lines. It was officially put into operation on March 1, 1937. There are one pair of passenger and one freight trains running from Baoji to Xi'an every day.

By the middle of the Anti-Japanese War, Baoji Station operated 2 pairs of passenger trains and 1 pair of mixed passenger and freight trains every day. After the Baoji to Tianshui branch line was opened in December 1945, the passenger and freight volume further increased. By 1949, Baoji Station had two pairs of passenger and freight trains arriving and departing every day. Each passenger train had 9 carriages, and each freight train had about 20 carriages.

According to statistics, the annual passenger volume of the Longhai Railway was 1.895 million in 1935. After Baoji Station was put into operation the following year, the passenger volume of the entire Longhai Railway surged to 2.786 million, which greatly facilitated Guanzhong exchange of personnel and materials.

Relying on the large-scale transfer capacity of the Longhai Railway, Baoji has quickly become an important material distribution center in central and western Guanxi. In the 1930s, goods from the west route were collected in Baoji and then transported eastward; goods from the east route were first landed in Baoji and then sent to Sichuan, Gansu, Xinjiang and other places. This also breaks the traditional pattern of using Fengxiang as the freight distribution center in central and western Guanxi. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Baoji, as the western terminus of the Longhai Railway, became a material turnover hub connecting the Central Plains and the battlefields of North China to the east, the rear areas of Sichuan and Yunnan to the south, and Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai to the northwest.

Secondly, the opening and operation of the West Line of Longhai Railway also promoted the prosperity of Baoji's urban industry and commerce. Before the opening of the West Line of the Longhai Railway, there were only sporadic workshops in Baoji City, and the production method was still based on traditional handcrafting. After the Longhai Railway was connected to Baoji in 1936, the Luoyang Locomotive Repair Factory immediately moved to the south of the Dongguan Railway in Baoji City and was rebuilt into the Baoji Locomotive Repair Factory, which became the beginning of the modern Baoji machine industry.

After 1937, Baoji became one of the main destinations for the inward relocation of factories and mining enterprises in the east due to its convenient railway transportation. For example, Shenxin No.4 Textile Factory and Fuxin No.5 Flour Mill in Hankou were moved to the north of Baoji Railway Station. People at the time also had high hopes for this: "After the opening of the Longhai Railway and the relocation of the Shenxin Cotton Mill in Hankou, most people thought that this province (Shaanxi) would be an industrial zone in the future. People in Baoji were also quite proud of the future of Wuxi, Jiangsu."

Since then, Hongshun Machinery Factory in Hanyang, Daxin Flour Mill in Luohe, Henan, Yuhua Cigarette Factory in Xuchang, Taichang Match Factory in Huaxian, Shaanxi, and Runji Auto Repair Department in Xi'an have successively moved to Shilipu, Baoji. Waiting places. Xi'an Munitions Bureau, Huaye Iron Works, etc. also successively built factories in Shilipu. Baoji Shilipu gradually developed into an emerging industrial zone where various factories and mines gathered.

According to statistics, by 1949, Baoji had more than 500 factories and mines of various types, involving 9 categories such as machinery, textiles, tobacco, power generation, and papermaking, with a total industrial output value of 31.14 million yuan. With an annual output of 200 boxes of cigarettes, 2,614 tons of cotton yarn, 8.36 million kWh of electricity, 432 tons of machine-made paper, 1,078 tons of raw coal, and 309 tons of lifting equipment, Baoji's status as an emerging industrial city in Guanzhong has been established.

During the Republic of China, there were many hawker shops outside the Longhai Hotel in Baoji, which looked very lively.

In the commercial field, Baoji urban commerce has developed rapidly since the completion of the west line of the Longhai Railway.

The "Ta Kung Pao" at that time pointed out that "before the arrival of the Longhai Railway, Baoji was only an ordinary county town. It was extremely remote and there were only more than a hundred business houses with meager capital in the city." In 1944, the number soared to 1,030 households, and in 1946, it increased to 1,350 households. At this time, Baoji not only gathered merchants, but also became an important financial center in central and western Guanxi.

Before the railway was opened to traffic, Baoji only had an office set up by the Shaanxi Provincial Bank to engage in local financial business. By 1941, there were six banks in Baoji, including the Central Bank, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, and China Farmers Bank. By 1948, there were 17 newly established banks and private banks in Baoji, gradually forming a regional financial system centered on the four major state-owned banks.

Finally, the Longhai Railway extended into the Guanzhong Plain, which also promoted the growth of Baoji's urban population and further expanded the urban area. Before the opening of the Longhai Railway, Baoji City was just a small county in the Guanzhong region, with a population of only six to seven thousand people, of which only a small part were industrial and commercial people. After the west line of the Longhai Railway was opened to traffic, the daily passenger throughput of Baoji Station reached 2,300. As the flow of people gathered and transferred, the urban population of Baoji began to grow rapidly. Especially after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, refugees from the east came in large numbers by train.

As the terminus of the Longhai Railway, Baoji has also attracted party and government agencies, factories, enterprises, and universities from the eastern region to move in. Therefore, population migration and growth became the main driving force for Baoji's population growth during this period. According to statistics in 1946, there were 91,872 people living in Baoji City, including 46,344 locals and 45,528 foreign and floating populations. The vast majority were employees of enterprises and institutions and their families who moved in due to the Anti-Japanese War. At the same time, in the process of promoting economic prosperity and population growth in Baoji City, the Longhai Railway also promoted the outward-oriented development of Baoji City.

Before the opening of the Longhai Railway, the city of Baoji was only nearly three miles long, and the urban area was limited to the city wall, without forming a city wall with a market. After the railway was accessible, the new urban area of ??the railway station outside the east gate of Baoji City began to take shape. By 1941, in order to adapt to the impact of urban development, the East City Gate and part of the city wall were demolished, and the main roads in the city were widened. There were many merchants and shops inside and outside the East City, making it the most prosperous downtown area in Baoji. After the Baoping Highway was completed in 1942, a large number of shops and stores sprang up north of the train station, connecting them with the commercial district in the east of the city. The urban area expanded several times compared to the original area.

At that time, a rickshaw puller was passing by the east gate of Baoji City

In addition, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, industrial enterprises such as Shenxin and Daxin moved to the east of the old city of Baoji. Shilipu, a new urban area of ??Baoji was soon formed in this area.

By 1949, the urban area of ??Baoji expanded to 6.7 square kilometers, with a total length of 7.44 kilometers of urban streets, and public facilities such as street lights and drainage were laid. In 1941, the famous writer Mr. Bing Xin passed by Baoji and was deeply moved by the changes in Baoji city. In the article "Three Days in the Northwest", she wrote: "Before the Anti-Japanese War, this was a little-known small county, but now it has become the center of northwest industry."

In just a dozen years In the past year, because the Longhai Railway extended into the Guanzhong Plain, Baoji has rapidly developed from a small county town in a remote Guanzhong area to an emerging industrial city in the northwest region. Yao Weixi, a contemporary, wrote in the article "An Overview of Baoji Society":

Since the westward expansion of the Longhai Railway, the county has been in a state of flux, and the city has become increasingly prosperous. Business operators from all walks of life across the country have come here. River crucian carp. Therefore, a place relies on transportation to prosper, and transportation is more important than the local area. ... Baoji suddenly emerged as an important town in the rear. Therefore, it was not only a meeting point for the transportation and cashiering of goods during the war, but also the hub of the connection between our capital and the entire northwest.

In other words, taking advantage of the transportation location advantages brought by the construction of the Longhai Railway not only facilitated the movement of personnel and the distribution of materials during wartime, but also brought new impetus to the development of Baoji's urban industry and commerce. It was the opening of the Longhai Railway that ushered in the golden period of modern industrial development in Baoji. Baoji's urban functions were also strengthened and promoted the socio-economic development of the Guanzhong region.

Judging from historical experience, since the birth of railway transportation, whether it is the growth of social production, the prosperity of industry and commerce, or the rise and fall of cities, it has been closely related to railways. As early as 1919, the famous German political economist Weber clearly pointed out: "The railway is the most revolutionary tool in history."

Coincidentally, Dr. Sun Yat-sen once pointed out: "Transportation is the mother of industry, and railways are the mother of transportation." As an advanced new mode of transportation, railway not only provided guarantee for the social and economic development of modern China, but also promoted the evolution of China's urban modernization.

The Longhai Railway, formerly known as the Qinyuhai Railway, was based on the Bianluo Railway that was built during the Guangxu period in the late Qing Dynasty, and was continuously expanded and gradually extended. During this period, due to limitations of economic costs, technical conditions, and social and political situations, repairs were continued intermittently, and it was difficult to maintain.

Until the founding of the Nanjing Kuomintang in 1927, the Longhai Railway only reached Lingbao, Henan. Since then, under the influence of the wave of "developing the northwest" in the domestic intelligentsia, the westward extension of the Longhai Railway has gradually become the focus of domestic public opinion. For example, the famous scholar Ma Xiaoshi believes that in order to develop the northwest, we must first complete the Longhai Railway in the shortest possible time. sea ??route".

Opening Ceremony of the West Line of Longhai Railway

With the active publicity of the majority of intellectuals, the construction of the west extension of the Longhai Railway was quickly put on the agenda of the Nationalist Party. In October 1928, the Ministry of Railways of the Nanjing Kuomintang officially issued a document deciding to continue to expand the Longhai Railway. From the groundbreaking at the end of 1930, after eight years of arduous construction, by March 1937, the Longhai Railway extended westward from Lingbao, Henan to Baoji, Shaanxi. The west extension project of the Longhai Railway is fully connected, which can be regarded as the greatest achievement of northwest transportation construction before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War.

In the modern history of Shaanxi’s economic and social development, the construction of the Longhai Railway in Shaanxi is undoubtedly a groundbreaking event! It not only changed the transportation pattern of Shaanxi and facilitated the exchange of people and the distribution of materials, but also vigorously promoted the development of towns along the railway and accelerated the externalization and modernization of Shaanxi's social economy. Among them, the rise of Baoji City during the Anti-Japanese War was a significant example of the Longhai Line extending into the Guanzhong Plain, thereby enhancing the city's location advantages.

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