History of Jardine Matheson Building

Address: No.27, Zhongshan Dongyi Road, Huangpu District

1874, the British Wusong Railway Company forcibly purchased the land north of the old shooting range of Jielu (now Wujin Road, Henan North Road) in the name of road construction, and started to build the railway leading to Wusong without the consent of the China Municipal Government. Therefore, the Qing government ignored China's sovereignty and made representations, but Britain ignored them. On July 3rd, 1876, the section from the old shooting range to Jiangwan was opened to traffic, which is the first railway in China. The audience swarmed in. The train goes back and forth six times a day. The driver is a foreigner. On August 3, a train killed one person near Jiangwan, which aroused public anger. They asked the Qing government to intervene and dismantle the railway. The Qing government was afraid of the masses making trouble and didn't want to offend foreigners, so it negotiated with the British consul in Nanjing. As a result, the Qing government bought the railway for 285,000 taels of silver, but the company insisted on exercising it for one year before handing it over, so it didn't stop running until June1877+1October 2 1. The Qing government dismantled the railway tracks and transported them to Taiwan Province Province. 1896, a railway was built under the auspices of Sheng Xuanhuai.