Touching on China.

A great deal has been heard of late of affairs in China, but little seems to have been published concerning the part played by British engineers in the founding of China's railway system. It was to England that China owed her first railway. This was the Shanghai-Woosung line, a 2ft. 6in. railway, with a total length of ten miles. The first locomotive ever seen in China was “The Pioneer” (constructed by Richard Rapier, of Ipswich, England) which made its trial trip over the Shanghai-Woosung railway on February 14th, 1876.

Immense excitement was aroused at the sight of China's first “Iron Horse,” and the destruction of the Shanghai-Woosung line, and of another railway serving the Kaiping mines, was shortly afterwards foolishly ordered by the government. A resourceful British engineer surreptitiously buried one of the Kaiping railway engines beneath the ballast. Years afterwards, the “Rocket of China,” as this locomotive was named, was dug up again and once more put to work. The latest bulletin concerning this historic engine was to the effect that it was still going strong in shunting service near Shanghai.