Beijing–Baotou Railway

The Beijing–Baotou Railway or Jingbao Railway (simplified Chinese: 京包铁路; traditional Chinese: 京包鐵路; pinyin: Jīngbāo Tiělù) is an 833 km railway from Beijing to Baotou, Inner Mongolia in China. It is a very important route in Northeast China.

The first section of this railway, the Imperial Peking–Kalgan Railway (now the "Jingzhang" Railway) was constructed between 1905 and 1909, connecting Beijing with Zhangjiakou (Kalgan). This section was the first railway designed and built by Chinese. The chief engineer is Jeme Tien Yow. He overcame the steep gradient near Badaling using a switchback. Due to his achievement in constructing this railway, Zhan (Jeme) is called the father of China's railways.

The railway was extended from Zhangjiakou to Hohhot by 1921 and to Baotou by 1923.

Even with the switchback, the gradient near Qinglongqiao railway station is still at 3.3%. In addition, travelling through the switchback is slow. A bypass route, Fengsha Railway, was built in the 1950s between Fengtai and Shacheng along the Yongding river. This route was dropped by Zhan due to high construction cost. Before the 1990s, the Fengsha railway was mainly used to transport cargos, and the original Jingzhang railway was focused on the passenger transportation. Now, most of the trains coming from Baotou have changed to use Fengsha railway instead. The Qinglongqiao railway station, where the switchback is located, is the station serving the Great Wall near Badaling.

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