Chan T'ien-yu 詹天佑 T. Chüan-ch'eng 眷誠 West. Tien Yow Jeme Chan T'ien-yu (26 April 1861-24 April 1919), pioneer railroad builder, educated in America, was known as Tien Yow Jeme. He was early noted as chief engineer and administrator of the Peking-Kalgan rail line. He later became director general of the Canton-Hankow-Szechwan railway system. A native of Nanhai, Kwangtung, Tien Yow Jeme was born in Canton at a time when the Taiping Rebellion was sweeping through the Yangtze valley in central China. His grandparents, originally from Anhwei province, had migrated to Kwangtung when engaged in the tea export business. Jeme, the eldest son in a family of four children, received his early education in an old-style private school at Canton.

The pattern of Jeme's education was changed in 1871 when the Ch'ing government approved the plan proposed by Yung Wing (Jung Hung, ECCP, I, 402-5), the first Chinese to graduate from an American university, to send a group of Chinese boys to study in the United States. Yung Wing, while studying at Yale, had given much thought to the problems of China and to the contribution which he hoped to make to reform and modernization of his country. He became convinced that China's hope lay in a radical reform of her traditional culture through rapid adoption of the scientific and progressive civilization of the West. He believed that this could best be accomplished, not by the employment of foreign specialists or the purchase of foreign machinery, but by sending abroad a steady stream of carefully selected Chinese youths to be educated in the United States. The plan, as presented to the throne and approved in 1871, was to send thirty boys annually for four consecutive years. The boys, between the ages of 10 and 15, were to enter the American educational system at an early age and to receive thorough Western training over a period of 10 to 15 years.

Tien Yow Jeme, then only 11 , was in the initial group of 30 Chinese boys who sailed from Shanghai for the United States in the summer of 1872. Jeme, among others, was sent to New Haven, Connecticut. There he was placed in the care of an American family and given preparatory training in the Seaside Institute for Boys before entering Hillhouse High School in New Haven. He was among the first of his countrymen to pass a college entrance examination, and in 1878 he was admitted to the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. Because of his aptitude for science and mathematics he studied civil engineering. He was graduated from Yale in the class of 1881 at the age of 20, receiving a Ph.B. degree in civil engineering.

Because of unfavorable reports received in Peking to the effect that the students were neglecting their Chinese studies and were becoming excessively Americanized, the China Educational Mission in the United States was ordered to be abolished in the summer of 1881 and the Chinese students ordered home. Tien Yow Jeme and one other boy were the only ones fortunate enough to have completed college, while 60 others were still in college and the rest even in high school.

Jeme's return to Shanghai coincided with the successful attempt to build the first stretch of standard gauge railroad in China. The railway was to be constructed by the Kaiping Mining Company from Tangshan to Suikochuang, a distance of only a few miles, for the purpose of transporting coal. C. W. Kinder, the British engineer of the mining company, was in charge of construction. The line was so short that it did not offer much opportunity to young Chinese engineers like Jeme to demonstrate their ability. Thus Jeme, together with a few of the Americaneducated students, was sent to the Foochow Arsenal and Navy Yard where he took a course in navigation. He was later placed on board a cruiser in the Chinese navy for further training as a naval cadet.

Soon afterwards, in 1884, China and France were involved in a dispute over Indo-China, and a French naval squadron, coming close to the Fukien coast, opened fire on the Arsenal as well as the naval school at Foochow. Jeme, then on duty on one of the Chinese naval craft, bravely fought back and returned fire. When his ship was hit and later abandoned, he jumped into the sea and rescued a number of his comrades. A few months later, Chang Chih-tung (ECCP, I, 27-32) at Canton requested Jeme to go to the south to make a complete survey of the Kwangtung coastline, the first such survey ever made.

After the coastal survey work was completed in 1886, Jeme was employed by the Canton Military and Naval Academy as an instructor. There he remained until he was asked by Wu T'ing-fang (q.v.), former Chinese minister to the United States, to join the railway service at Tientsin. By this time the Kaiping railway company had reorganized as the Tientsin Railway Company, independent of the mining firm, and had extended the railroad considerably toward Tangku and Tientsin. This was the opportunity for which Jeme had been waiting: the chance to utilize what he had learned at Yale and to dedicate his life to railroad engineering. Wu T'ing-fang was then director of the Tientsin Railway Company.

Jeme first joined the railway service at Tientsin in 1888. Thereafter, for 31 years, he continuously served the Chinese railways in various cities with conspicuous dedicrtion. His first appointment was as cadet engneer, an assistant to the resident engineer of the Tientsin Railway Company. As the railroad was financed by a British loan, the chief engineer and all the principal engineers were British. The ultimate objective of the railroad was to extend from Tientsin to Mukden in one direction, and from Tientsin to Peking in the other, forming what was later known as the Peking- Mukden Railway. In the course of construction of this important rail line, Jeme took an active part on both sides of the Great Wall. He performed his duties so well that he was promoted to be resident engineer and then district engineer. Among the important work under his charge was the construction of the Luan River bridge consisting of 5 steel-through trusses each 200 feet long, 10 plate girders each 100 feet long, and 2 plate girders each 30 feet long. The use of pneumatic caissons in the construction of bridge piers under water was first introduced by him in China in connection with this project. During his 12-year service with this railway, he was intermittently called upon to help build the Pinghsiang-Liling Railway in Hunan in 1900 and in 1902 to take charge of the building of the Hsiling Railway, which made it easier for the empress dowager, the Kuang-hsu emperor, and members of the imperial household to worship their Manchu ancestors in Hopei province. This Hsiling Railway, a 42-kilometer branch of the Peking-Hankow Railway, was completed in four months under difficult conditions. Thus Jeme became known to the imperial government and became a great favorite of Yuan Shih-k'ai, then the powerful viceroy at Tientsin in charge of railway enterprises. When conditions in north China had returned to normal following the Boxer Uprising of 1 900, the Peking-Mukden Railway did so much business that it registered a substantial surplus after meeting all loan obligations. Yuan Shih-k'ai wished to use this surplus for the construction of the Peking-Kalgan Railway, with the ultimate objective of reaching Suiyuan and farther points to open up China's northwest. The original plan was to have C. W. Kinder, then chief engineer of the Peking-Mukden Railway, serve as chief engineer of the proposed line. This choice seemed logical, as the money for the proposed line had come from the surplus fund of the railway built with British loans. Also, Mr. Kinder was recognized as an engineer of proven ability. However, in 1905 the Russian minister at Peking delivered to the Chinese government a protest against the appointment, stating that Great Britain had an understanding with Russia that any railroad built beyond the Great Wall toward Mongolia, which was then considered within the so-called Russian sphere of influence, must be financed by Russian capital and built by Russian engineers. He added, however, that if the Chinese themselves could furnish their own money and personnel, Russia would have no objection. Yuan Shih-k'ai immediately took up the Russian challenge and appointed Jeme as chief engineer, the first Chinese ever to undertake full responsibility for construction of a difficult rail line. The appointment surprised many Western engineers, who doubted whether any Chinese engineer was qualified to take up such an important task. It was in the construction of the Peking- Kalgan Railway that Jeme demonstrated his outstanding abilities both as engineer and as administrator. He inspired the men under him by making an example of himself and by reminding them that the eyes of the world were focussed upon them. He impressed upon them the fact that their success or failure would directly affect the welfare of China. As a result, there was full cooperation throughout the ranks, for the men fully realized the significance of their undertaking.

The most difficult terrain on the Peking- Kalgan rail line was the stretch beginning at the Nankow Pass. There, within a distance of 20 kilometers, the line had to climb an altitude of 570 meters, necessitating the use of heavy grades and long tunnels. Altogether, four tunnels had to be driven in the most mountainous region, the longest one near the Great Wall being 1,091 meters in length. When it became evident that the driving of this long tunnel by working only from the two ends would be a very time-consuming process, Jeme decided to drive down vertical shafts from the ground directly above to the center line of the tunnel at two convenient points. Excavation work was carried out in the tunnel at six points rather than only two, thus facilitating greatly the progress of the work. Due to the great care exercised, there was no error in either the center line location or the elevation when this long tunnel was driven through. This feat was all the more remarkable since there were few experienced engineers on the job and almost no modern equipment. Jeme had to resort to primitive devices and methods of his own invention. In addition, he had to train the junior staff almost single-handedly. In order to insure safety, guard rails were extensively used on sharp curves. Because of the heavy grade, a special type of articulated locomotive had to be used for the first time on Chinese railways. And within the steep grade section, from Nankow to Kangchuang, a pusher engine was employed at the rear of the train to provide additional power.

Jeme estimated the cost of this 200-kilometer railway at 7.29 million taels and that the work would be completed in four years. In fact, the construction was begun in August 1905, and the line was opened to traffic in July 1909, the total cost coming to 6.93 million taels. Completion of the task was greatly assisted because all of the Chinese engineers dealt directly with the contractors. Thus there was no commission deducted for every purchase, as was the case with all railways constructed with foreign loans, when a commission was paid to the foreign purchasing agents. At the opening ceremony of the railway in August 1909, Tien Yow Jeme received a great ovation and became a national hero. In recognition of his work, he was given an honorary chin-shih degree by the Ch'ing government. He was also made a consulting engineer to the ministry of communications. In 1910 he was appointed chairman of the Board of Civil Service Examiners, set up to evaluate the qualifications of some 700 Chinese who had studied outside China. After the Peking-Kalgan Railway was opened to traffic, the civil governor of Szechwan province sent a petition to Peking requesting the release of Jeme so that he might take up the construction of the Szechwan section of the Hankow-Szechwan line. As things were running smoothly on the Peking-Kalgan Railway, Yuan Shih-k'ai permitted him to accept the offer on a temporary basis. Accordingly, Jeme went to Ichang in 1909 to take up his post as chief engineer of the Szechwan Railway Company, then a privately owned company.

In 1910, while he was in Ichang getting construction work started, Jeme was informed that he had also been selected to direct construction of the southern section of the Canton- Hankow Railway, a privately owned line. After construction at Ichang was under way, he left for Canton to take up this additional duty. During this period, Jeme had to shuttle between Peking, Ichang, and Canton. When the anti-Manchu revolt broke out in China in 1911, Jeme was devoting his efforts to the extension of the railway at Canton. Following the abdication of the Manchus, the Canton-Hankow-Szechwan railroad system was organized and financed through a consortium of British, French, German, and American loans. The Chinese government was to appoint a director general to supervise the work and to deal with the loan representatives and their recommended chief engineers in the various sections of the system. Jeme was given this top railway post, with headquarters at Hankow. He remained in this position from 1912 until his death.

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 greatly delayed the construction of this important trunk line owing to shortage of funds. Jeme could achieve no more than opening the British section of the line from Wuchang, opposite Hankow, to Changsha, a distance of about 365 kilometers, to traffic in 1918. On the German section a roadbed of 164 kilometers was completed, but the tracks were laid for but a short distance before the work had to be suspended. On the American and the French sections construction was not even begun. While the construction work of the Canton- Hankow Railway was at a standstill, Jeme was appointed Chinese representative on the Allied Technical Board under the chairmanship of John F. Stevens, an American engineer, in connection with the movement of the Allied occupation forces over the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Chinese Eastern Railway. Jeme had never known sickness until about this time, when he suffered a bout of dysentery. Long hours and the strain of the work had their telling effect, and he had to return to Hankow on sick leave. Upon his arrival at Hankow, he was immediately rushed to the Jenchi Hospital, where he died on 24 April 1919 at the age of 59 sui.

Tien Yow Jeme always considered himself a professional engineer and never became involved with politics. He was one of the founders of the Chinese Institute of Engineers and was elected its first president in 1912. His aim was to give the institute sufficient professional standing so that its members would be qualified for any technical position in the Chinese government. He worked actively to raise funds for construction of the institute building in Peking, and when in the capital he always stayed at the institute headquarters in preference to the more luxurious hotels of the city. Jeme was elected a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers of Great Britain in 1894, the first Chinese to gain that honor. He was elected to membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1909. In 1916 he received an honorary LL.D. degree from the British colonial University of Hong Kong.

Jeme was a clear thinker and man of few words. In the field of railway engineering, he displayed consistently sound judgment. He also had the capacity to inspire deep and lasting affection in his associates and subordinates, especially those who worked with him through his early struggles. Chinese engineers of his generation viewed him as their leader, one to whom they could always go for advice and assistance. On every Chinese railway of which he had charge, he set an adequate standard of remuneration for Chinese engineers, believing that they should receive the same wages for their work as European engineers of the same rank. He was always an inspiration and an unfailing source of guidance for young engineers. During the late 1880's, when Jeme was working at Canton, he was in close contact with the growing number of Cantonese mechanics and acquired great respect for their capabilities and resourcefulness. Later, during his 30 years of service in the railways of China, Jeme consistently relied on skilled mechanics from Canton when starting new projects. Personally, Jeme was a man of simple tastes, modest in the extreme, and neverjealous of those who ranked above him. His early education in the United States was reflected in his love of baseball. When traveling through California on the way back to China in 1881, he and other returning Chinese students played an exhibition game against an Oakland, California team, and the Chinese team surprised the Americans with their proficiency at the game. He was also a keen tennis player.

Tien Yow Jeme was survived by his wife, five sons, and two daughters. Two of his sons were educated in the United States. His second son, like his father a graduate of Yale, served as assistant chief engineer on the Canton- Hankow Railway during the Sino-Japanese war; he died in 1941 of overwork and exhaustion. Jeme's elder son-in-law, Jick Wong, was also a noted railway engineer who served for some years as chief engineer of the Peking- Hankow Railway.

In recognition of Tien Yow Jeme's pioneering contribution to China's railway development, the Chinese government erected a full-sized bronze statue of him at Ch'ing-lung-ch'iao station near the most difficult section of the Peking-Kalgan Railway. Located just below the Great Wall, Jeme's statue oversees the greatest engineering work of his ancestors. The Peking-Kalgan Railway was the greatest engineering achievement of Jeme's lifetime.