Sun Ning Railway Company
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| Locale | South China |
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| Dates of operation | 1906–1938 |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm |
| Headquarters | Guangzhou |
| Sun Ning Railway Company | |||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Xīnníng Tiĕlù |
| Wade–Giles | Hsin-ning T‘ieh-lu |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | San1-ning4 Tit8-lou6 |
The Sun Ning Railway Company, also known as the Sunning Railway Co. or the Xinning Railway Co., was a standard-gauge railway in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province founded in 1906 by Chin Gee Hee (陳宜禧, Chen Yixi) and Yu Shek (余灼, Yu Zhuo). It was South China's second railway and one of only three railways in pre-1949 China built solely with private Chinese capital. It was destroyed during the Second World War to prevent its use by the Japanese.
In order to fund the railway, Chin raised $2.75 million, mainly from overseas Chinese; some sources say that further investment came from James J. Hill, but others say that at a time when railway development in China was dominated by European nations, he "vowed not to sell shares to foreigners, to borrow money from them, or to use their engineers." Chin's partner Yu Zhuo raised further funds in China and from overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Its benefits to Guangdong's economy were cut short when it was seized by local warlords in 1926; it was finally destroyed during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938.
While raising funds and building the railway, Chin encountered numerous obstacles: a magistrate tried to usurp credit for organizing the company; there were many difficulties over obtaining a right of way due to clan feuds and superstitions (geomancy); and gentry-officials repeatedly attempted extortion. Chin bought an official title to become legally one of the gentry himself, which somewhat eased the process. Still, the construction was confronted by over a hundred riots staged by local landlord forces, resulting in thirty-nine otherwise unnecessary turns, which made construction more expensive and affected speed and safety.
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