The Beijing–Harbin railway, or the Jingha Railway (), is the railway that connects Beijing with Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province. It spans . It is a very prominent route in the provinces of northeastern China. History Construction of the section between Tangshan and Tianjin began in 1881 as the Kaiping Tramway. This section is the second-oldest railway in China and the oldest still in use. (The oldest railway in China was the Woosung Railway in Shanghai, built in 1876 but dismantled and removed to Taiwan the next year.) Later this section was extended west to Beijing and east to Shanhaiguan. It was further extended to the east and reached Mukden (modern Shenyang) in Fengtian province (modern Liaoning) by 1912. The railway operated under or was known by several names, including: the Imperial Railroad of North China, the Guanneiwai Railway (literally "Shanhaiguan Inner & Outer Railway"), the Jingfeng Railway, or Peking−Mukden Railway in English, from August 1907 to 1928, the Pingfeng Railway, or Peiping−Mukden Railway in English, from 1928 to April 1929, the Beining Railway, from April 1929 to 1932. Under the late Qing and during the early Republic, it was administered by and provided much of the revenue for the Ministry of Posts and Communications. It is now administered by the Ministry of Railways for the People's Republic of China. The section from Shenyang to Harbin used to be a part of the South Manchuria branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway built by the Russian Empire from 1898 to 1902. Later, the section from Changchun to Shenyang became part of the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railway. There used to be no linking line between the Beining Railway and the South Manchuria Railway. A bridge was built for the South Manchuria Railway to cross the Beining Railway. The Huanggutun Incident took place on June 4, 1928 right at this bridge, several kilometres east of the Huanggutun railway station on the Beining Railway. After the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the subsequent establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo, the section of the line east of Shanhaiguan - being within the territory of Manchukuo – was separated from the Beining Railway, becoming the Fengshan Line of the Manchukuo National Railway. In the Japanese-occupied territory under the authority of the collaborationist Provisional Government of the Republic of China, a new company was set up to manage railways and bus transportation in northern China