Baoding Railway Station

Baoding 保定
Baoding Railway Station (West Square)
Location	China
Platforms	8
History
Opened	1899

Coordinates: 38°51′42″N 115°28′28″E / 38.86167°N 115.47444°E / 38.86167; 115.47444

Baoding Railway Station (Chinese: 保定站) is a railway station located in Hebei Province, People's Republic of China. It serves the Jingguang railway, and is currently administered by the Beijing Railway Bureau. It is currently a Class 1 station. About 120 trains stop at this station every day.

In April 1897, construction of the Lugou Bridge–Baoding section of the Luhan Railway (also known as Jinghan Railway, now the northern section of Jingguang Railway) began. Lugou Bridge, precisely 20 km away from the City of Beijing, was chosen as the starting point of the railway because the Empress Dowager Cixi forbid the construction of railroads within 20 km of the City of Beijing. This section of the railway, called the Lubao Section, was 132.7 km long, and was the first section of the Luhan Railway. Tracklaying was completed in January 1899. On 22 January 1899, Baodingfu Station (保定府站) was opened, and on 1 February, the section of the railway began operation. The station consisted of a waiting hall, a ticket office and a simple footbridge for passenger service; it also consisted of a storeroom, platform and tracks for freight service. Notably, in the early days of the station, passenger trains ran only during the day. Trains would stop for the night, the passengers would unload, and then board the train the next morning to continue the journey. Day-and-night train service was introduced to the station in 1913.