The Nanjing West Railway Station sent off its last passengers to Xiamen on the K161 at 10.17 pm on March 24. After over a hundred years of helping travellers reach their destination, last Sunday marked the end of transport operations carried out from the traffic-hub of the past. The Ministry of Railways has permanently rerouted all trains to Nanjing Railway Station.
Beloved by many Nanjingers, it got a grand send-off a week before its shutdown. On March 14, 800 travellers bought tickets for the 7102 train from Zhonghua Men station to Nanjing West, to say farewell to their old friend. Even on a weekend, the train usually sold half that amount at best.
The station, which opened in 1908, has been a witness to a period of conflict and turmoil. It carried out its duties through the fall of a dynasty, civil war, Japanese occupation and the Cultural Revolution. But Nanjing Xizhan has also left its mark on history as the oldest railway station in Nanjing and the starting point of the old Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, for which it was honoured with the presence of one Sun Yat-Sen, who arrived as the founder of a republic and the nation
