1904, the Qing government prepared to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. Britain and Russia compete for the right to build at the same time, deadlocked. The Qing government did not dare to offend both sides, so it decided to build it itself. 1905, Zhan Tianyou was hired as chief engineer (now called engineer). The foreigner laughed and said, "The China company that can build this road has not yet been born." With lofty sense of responsibility and tenacious perseverance, Zhan Tianyou overcame many obstacles with its own strength, and finally built the first truly self-built railway at 1909.

Subsequently, Zhan Tianyou not only accepted the invitation to build four railways, but also planned to build the Guangdong-Han Railway from Guangzhou to Hankou with great enthusiasm, so as to form a major trunk line connecting with the Beijing-Han Railway and running through the north and south of China. However, in 19 1 1, the Qing government issued an order to nationalize the national commercial railways, forcing Zhan Tianyou to hand over the Yue-Han Railway, which made Zhan Tianyou feel extremely desperate. In the same year, the Revolution of 1911 broke out and the Qing Dynasty perished. 19 12 years, the Republic of China was founded. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the new interim president, put forward the grand plan of "building a national railway network", and at the same time proposed to merge the originally planned Sichuan-Han and Guangdong-Han railways to form the Hanyue-Sichuan Railway Company, and invited Zhan Tianyou as the organizer.

19 19, the burden of railway construction fell into the hands of bureaucratic government and foreign powers, and Zhan Tianyou's work of building the Han-Yue-Chuan Railway was once again met with heavy resistance. He often felt that railway construction could not be independent, but in fact, the great powers did not want China people to control the lifeline of their country. In order to change this situation, he United with people around him and made unremitting struggle, which made great contributions to the railway construction in China.