ABSTRACT
After the first Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), the educated Chinese gradually realized the importance of railway construction to the modernization of their country. In the following decade, a number of railways were built with foreign loans, but gentry and merchants in the provinces soon developed an interest in the projects and demanded local control over the construction and ownership of new railways. In 1905, as part of the Rights-Recovery movement led by gentry and merchants, the right to build and manage the Canton-Hankou Railway and the Sichuan-Hankou Railway were obtained by the people of Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, and Sichuan,
