The Woosung-Shanghai Railway of 1876
From D.C. Boulger, China, Chapter XXIII, The Reign of Kwangsu:
China Text:: The viceroy of the Two Kiang gave his assent to the construction of a short line between Shanghai and the port of Woosung. The great difficulty had always been to make a start; and now that a satisfactory commencement had been made the foreigners were disposed in their eagerness to overlook all obstacles, and to imagine the Flowery Land traversed in all directions by railways. But these expectations were soon shown to be premature. Half of the railway was open for use in the summer of 1876, and during some weeks the excitement among the Chinese themselves was as marked as among the Europeans. The hopes based upon this satisfactory event were destined to be soon dispelled by the animosity of the officials. They announced their intention to resort to every means in their power to prevent the completion of the undertaking. The situation revealed such dangers of mob violence that Sir Thomas Wade felt compelled to request the company to discontinue its operations, and after some discussion it was arranged that the Chinese should buy the line. After a stipulated period the line was placed under Chinese management, when, instead of devoting themselves to the interests of the railway, and to the extension of its power of utility, they willfully and persistently neglected it, with the express design of destroying it. At this conjuncture the viceroy allowed the Governor of Fuhkien to remove the rails and plant to Formosa. The fate of the Woosung railway destroyed the hopes created by its construction, and postponed to a later day the great event of the introduction of railways into China...
David Pong (1973), "Confucian Patriotism and the Destruction of the Woosung Railway," Modern Asian Studies 7:4 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-749X%281973%297%3A4%3C647%3ACPATDO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W:
[T]he final decision to have this short 9 1/4 mile 30-inch gauge railway destroyed was made by Shen Pao-chen (1820-79), a modernizer... [who] had just completed an eight year term as the director-general of the Foochow Navy Yard.... In 1877... Governor-General of Liang-Kiang and Commissioner of Trade for the Southern Ports, he ranked with Li Hongzhang and Tso Tsungtang as the leading champions of 'self-strengthening'....
[...]
[S]oon after 20 October [1877], when the Chinese took possession of the line, Shen... ordered that the rails be torn up... was quoted as having said also that,
although the railway is a necessary development for China, I cannot allow those who come after me to be able to say, "[it] was built when Shen Pao-chen was Governor-General of Liang-King."...
[...]
[S]ince in the settlement regarding the railway, China had already paid it... why did Shen decide to dismantle it?... [O]wing to the location and nature of the railway, the mere change of ownership was not sufficient for th eremoval of the many threats to China's integrity and the Confucian social order.... [T]he railway would remain a potential threat to the advantages gained by the small-draught steamships fo the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company. Given the character of Chinese local government, the continued existence of a railway between Shanghai and Woosung was liable to abuses, such as duties evasion or the illicit use of the line by foreigners to transport goods. It was mainly due to these considerations that the Chinese deemed it desirable to have the railway removed...
[...]
In a letter to Kuo Sungtao, Li Hongzhang ascribed the destruction of the railway to the narrowness of Shen's vision and his desire to acquire fame among anti-foreign elements...
