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At 01:10 on 12 November, 1999, a fire broke out in the waiting room of Nanjing Railway Station. Later it would be discovered the cause was the aging of internal wiring. The fire quickly spread to the entire facility, while the Nanjing Municipal Fire Department dispatched 30 fire trucks to the rescue.
The fire was extinguished at 02:15, but not before the entire waiting room had burned down. Its 1,841-squaremetre roof collapsed, and a 60-year-old employee on the second floor of the waiting room suffocated.
It was the end of an era which began some 31 years earlier. In the 1960s, construction of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was underway, but there was a snag. The original Pukou Station and the former Nanjing Railway Station (now Nanjing West Railway Station) would not be able to connect to the new bridge. Therefore, a brand-new new railway station was also needed.
The engineers and construction workers prevailed and on 1 October, 1968, the new Nanjing Railway Station was opened at the same time as the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge.
After the fire, reconstruction work was halted with the announcement that an entire new station instead be built, as one of the key projects for the 10th National Games that were to be held in Nanjing in 2005. On 28 June, 2002, the foundation stone was laid for the ¥350-million new station. For that money, the number of tracks running though the station was to be increased from eight to 10; another platform built, bringing the total number to four; while all platforms were to be raised to door level, over which 50,000 square metres of columnfree canopies would be installed. Two passenger overpasses and one underpass were also to be built.
Nanjing Railway Station
By Frank Hossack
As for the exterior, the look of the new Nanjing Railway Station was provided for and designed by French architecture firm, AREP. Given that it faces Xuanwu Lake, the architects therefore took sailing as inspiration for the design aesthetic that was also their first railway-station project in China.
A mast and cable-stay suspension structure, the 18 masts rising from the Station’s roof support the structure’s transverse steel beams. They could easily pass for the masts of those in a vast armada of wooden sailing ships.
That suspended roof is complimented by a large glass wall which inserts a counter curve reminding of Purple Mountain's gold and purple colours. Two rows of canopies, in harmony with the lake horizon, protect the inner spaces.
In the years to come, a northern expansion to the Station was to follow, which included putting in more tracks and lines, as well as the building of the Nanjing Railway Station North Square. The expansion was officially opened on 8 August, 2014, the same day the Youth Olympics kicked off.
