盛宣怀
In 1896, the Imperial Chinese Railway Administration was established to oversee railway construction in China. Sheng Xuanhuai attempted to balance the foreign powers by awarding concessions to different countries. In 1897, a Belgian consortium agreed to lend for the construction of a railway between Beijing and Hankou. The connecting Guangdong–Hankou railway was awarded to the American China Development Company in 1898.