China - 1 Dollar - P-A59 - January 2, 1899 dated Foreign Paper Money

Extremely rare note. Printed by Barclay and Fry Limited. The initial railway track established in China was a 600-meter (1,969 ft) miniature gauge demonstration line constructed by a British merchant outside the Xuanwumen city gate in Beijing in 1865 to showcase rail technology. The Qing government showed no interest and subsequently dismantled the line. The first railway to commence commercial operations was the Woosung railway, a 14.5 km line connecting Shanghai to Woosung (now part of Shanghai's Baoshan District), which was inaugurated in 1876 with funding from Jardine Matheson. In October 1876, the Qing government acquired the railway but demolished it the following year for various reasons, including a fatal incident on the track. Until China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, the government maintained a negative stance towards railway development. However, starting in 1895, the government began to issue rail concessions to foreign entities and allowed direct access to the capital, Beijing.