Research On The Economic Development Of Jing-han Railway And The Area Of Xingyang(1902-1949)

The area of Xinyang is located in the southeast of Henan Province, and bordered with the city of Xiaogan in Hubei Province in the south, Adjacent to Fuyang and Luan of Anhui Province in the east, the north and west are linked with Zhumadian and Nanyang by mountains and rivers. The area of Xinyang has become the suppliers of goods distribution center in South of Henan by virtue of its geographical advantages in county governance, government administration, the state government for a long time, due to for a long time it was in the heavy atmosphere of the small scale peasant agriculture. The development of agriculture, industry, business was very slowly; the import and export commodities were only daily provisions and forestry products. Until the early 20 th century, the opening of Jing-han Railway, has given the area of Xinyang which is in the inland with traffic inconvenience an opportunity to connect an extensive exchanges with the outside world, a large number flow of goods and traffic has ensued, which made the agriculture, industry and commerce in the region develop rapidly, mainly shown as follows, a large number of agricultural and forestry products had been exported, the fair trade developed rapidly, foreign trade flourished; the production of industry tended to be in an increasing specialization state, new industrial enterprises had gradually rising which was represented by the textile industry and power industry; commercial trade tended to be prosperous, large stores and trade associations gradually increased, and the trade among the region and outside the region had a frequent interaction. The tourism and finance and industry which represented the new business had developed rapidly.Thanks to the opening of the Jing-han Railway and the convenient water and land transport, the region of Xinyang has gradually become the goods distribution center of the area of Jianghuai, the merchants who came from all over the country had flocked here, the commerce has growing fast, which accelerated the pace of urbanization. Although there were many limited factors in the process of economic development in the area of Xinyang, so that the modernization process was relatively slow, but since the railway had opened, the total economy of the area of Xinyang had been increasing. And the economic structure had becoming more coordinated, mainly shown as follows, the gradual improvement of the agricultural structure, the advantages of agriculture highlighted; the kinds of industrial products increased, new industrial enterprises rose; the tertiary industry had a fast development and the business structure had a diversified trend. Thus, in this sense, the contribution of Jing-han Railway had made to the economic development of the area of Xinyang was beyond doubt.