Sun Ning Railway Company

The Sun Ning Railway Company (aka Sunning Railway Company and Xinning Railway Company) 新寧鐵路 (pinyin: Xinning Tielu) was a standard gauge railway in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province founded in 1906 by Chin Gee Hee 陳宜禧 (pinyin: Chen Yixi) and Yu Shek 余灼 (pinyin: Yu Zhuo). It was South China's second railway and one of only three railways in pre-1949 China built solely with private Chinese capital.
Fundraising
In order to fund the railway, Chin raised $2.75 million, mainly from overseas Chinese; some sources say that further investment came from James J. Hill, but others say that at a time when railway development in China was dominated by European nations, he "vowed not to sell shares to foreigners, to borrow money from them, or to use their engineers." Chin's partner Yu Zhuo raised further funds in China and from overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Its benefits to Guangdong's economy were cut short when it was seized by local warlords...