Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China Era Founding of the Syfang General Repair Works Following the
Juye Incident, the
German army landed at Tsingtao in 1897. In 1898, the
Qing government signed the
Jiao'ao Concession Treaty with Germany, which made Tsingtao a German colony. This treaty also granted the German government the right to build the
Jiaoji Railway and develop the mineral deposits along the route.
Kaiser Wilhelm II was determined to make Tsingtao a "model colony" and a bridgehead for the
German army in the
Far East. As a result, German authorities built a number of factories in Tsingtao between 1900 and 1910. In October 1900, while building the Jiaoji Railway, German authorities began constructing the Shantung Railway Syfang General Repair Works (
Hauptreparatur-Werkstätte Syfang der Schantung-Eisenbahn), which was under the Shantung Railway Company (
Schantung-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft), with a total investment of 1,587,000
marks. It became China's third rolling stock factory after
Tangshan and
Dalian. The factory was located near the Sifang Railway Station in Sifang Village, with more than 10,000 square meters of factory spaces and more than 400 workers, and was completed in 1902. Locomotive parts were imported from Germany and assembly was conducted by the Sifang plant. By 1914, a total of 1,148 locomotives, coaches, and wagons had been assembled or repaired.
Times of turmoil . In 1914, the
First World War broke out, and Germany was occupied with war at the homefront.
Japan and the
United Kingdom took the opportunity and launched the
Siege of Tsingtao. The Shantung Railway Syfang General Repair Works was damaged during the siege. In 1915, the Empire of Japan forced the
Republic of China government to accept its
Twenty-One Demands, which affirmed Japan's takeover of the German territories and railroad assets in
Shantung. The Syfang General Repair Works was renamed Shantung Railway Syfang Workshop, which was temporarily managed by the
Japanese Army. In March 1915, the Japanese army in Tsingtao established the Shantung Railway Administration, which had five departments: general affairs, transportation, engineering, accounting and mining, and the Tsingtao Workshop. During the Japanese occupation, additional facilities such as sand casting factories, passenger wagon yards, wheel factories, copper casting yards were built, and the number of employees reached more than 1,500.
Pre-PRC to 1949 In 1938 the
Beiyang government took over control of the rolling stock manufacturer but constant political turmoil left railway development on hold until 1949.
Local growth and beyond After 1949 the facility became
Sifang Works and in 1952 produced China's first indigenous steam locomotive,
August 1st, then through the 1960s and 1970s became a supplier to
China Railway passenger cars and later expanded to export markets by the 1980s. ==Products and services==