In the first month of the fourteenth year of Guangxu's reign, the first royal railway in the Qing Dynasty , the Ziguangge Railway, was completed, with a total length of about 3 miles. As a sign of filial piety, Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang , spent 300,000 taels of silver to customize a steam train from Germany for Empress Dowager Cixi. With the steam train and the royal railway, the Qing royal family had the most advanced means of transportation in the world - the steam train.
Empress was living in Yiluan Palace in Zhonghai, Xiyuan at that time. Once she was going to Beihai Jingqingzhai for an outing to enjoy the scenery. Li Lianying asked Lafayette to take a ride on the Western-style train presented by Li Hongzhang. Cixi was in a good mood and agreed.
When Cixi came to the steamer, she took a closer look at the steamer. It was about three feet long, slender and long. The front of the steamer was just over a foot. It was covered in iron armor and looked extremely bulky. She thought to herself that it was so big. How can an iron box run? Even if you can move, it's definitely not as comfortable as sitting in a sedan.
When Cixi got into the train carriage, she found that the interior was extremely luxurious and she felt very good. Suddenly, she heard a clear whistle from the front of the train, and saw billowing white smoke coming from the front of the train. The train began to move swaying, and the speed slowly increased. She exclaimed and stopped quickly. However, the steam train ran faster and faster like a galloping horse, rushing forward with a rumble. She was so frightened that her face turned pale and she fainted... When she woke up, she was still mumbling: There is no way this sedan chair is stable. I was so scared that I almost lost my mind.
After resting for a few days, Cixi thought of the steamer again. She felt strange that it ran so fast without a horse or anyone to lift it. So she took Li Lianying on the train again to find out. This time she was no longer afraid or faint, and the scenery on both sides of the steamer lane became more beautiful. She gradually felt that riding a train was more stable and comfortable than riding a sedan...
From then on, whenever Cixi encountered something boring or happy, she would go to the Taiye Pond and sit on the train, in the carriage. After passing through the wind, it will be as refreshing as possible. From then on, Cixi no longer rejected Western industrialized products, and even took the initiative to become a spokesperson for trains... The Qing Dynasty also stopped debating "whether" to build railways and began an era of embracing "railroads".
