一张老照片，一段封尘的记忆。照片中讲述的老北京的故事、历史文化和名胜古迹，让来自世界各国的友人更深刻地了解北京、感受北京。 THESE pictures

　　show two old railway stations at Qianmen. The smaller building to the west of

　　Qianmen is no longer there. It served the Beijing-Hankou Railway. The Belgians（比利时人）

　　began building it in 1898, and Yuan Shikai（袁世凯） attended its formal opening

　　in 1906. The bigger building to the East of Qianmen still remains. Now it houses

　　many shops, but the old sign still says the Zhengyangmen（正阳门） Station for the

　　Beijing-Shenyang Railway. This railway was built by the British, and linked

　　Beijing with Shenyang, also known as Fengtian（奉天）, in 1911. The soldiers seen

　　in the picture reminds me of the old Hollywood movie Shanghai Express（上海快车）,

　　an exciting story set in the warlord （军阀）period. Trains bound for Shanghai would

　　have left this station and gone as far as Tianjin, then crossed over to the

　　Jin-Pu line（津浦铁路）. At Pukou（浦口）, passengers would have to cross the Yangtze

　　by ferryboat, before continuing on to Shanghai. Rickshaws（人力车）can be seen in

　　both pictures. These were a popular means of transport. It is estimated by one

　　scholar that by the 1920s, rickshaw men accounted for about 25 percent of the

　　Beijing workforce! But rickshaws disappeared from Beijing in the 1950s, and

　　were replaced by pedicabs (三轮车). However, I recall riding in them in Beidaihe（北戴河）

　　, which brings me back to the railway. In 1917 a tourist branch line（支线） was

　　added to the Beijing-Shenyang Railway at the Beidaihe station, which allowed

　　trains to go right down to the sea front. Between May and October, passengers

　　could travel overnight from Beijing or Tianjin to the resort(度假胜地）. Now the

　　same trip can take less than two hours! Beijing had another important station:

　　Xizhimen （西直门）Station, the terminus（终点站） of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.

　　This began operation in 1909, and was the first railway to be built by a Chinese

　　company and Chinese Chief engineer Zhan Tianyou（詹天佑）. On its way up to Zhangjiakou,

　　known to some foreigners by its Mongol name Kalgan, the railway has to go through

　　some high mountains near Badaling. In 1915, Xizhimen station was connected by

　　a Circle Line (环城铁路) to the Qianmen station. Some of the Circle Line stations

　　stood where the subway now stands!