The Peking-Iankow Railway was begun in 1897 and completed as a whole in December, 1905. It was built with capital ostensibly Belgian, but which was in reality Russo-French to the extent of four. fifths. The original loan was for £4,500,000, and this was redeemed in 1907 by an Anglo-French loan for 5,000,000 which left the government in unfettered control of the line.
The first loan marked the beginning of the "battle of the concessions" in which Great Britain, France, America, Russia and Belgium were the combatants for this concession, which eventually went to Belgium, British and American rights of priority being ignored as ther progress until after the Boxer trouble.
The line has been uniformly profitable in spite of continued interruption owing to troop movements since the outbreak of the civil war in 1916. In 1917 the line was ye extensively damaged by flueds and was practically closed for a period of three months. On January 1, 1920, it was amalgamated with the Peking-Suiyuan Railway.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.