The Crown Jewel of the Railway Museum

　　

       At the East Suburb Exhibition Hall of the China Railway Museum, there is a steam locomotive known as Locomotive No. 0, named after the "0" mark on its body. This locomotive is only 4.75 meters long and was designed to run at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour. It is the oldest preserved steam locomotive in China and was once used on China's first self-built railway—the Tangshan-Xugezhuang Railway. It has been classified as a national first-class cultural relic.

　　In 1882, the Qing government purchased this locomotive. It was later kept at the Tangshan Locomotive Factory and was damaged during the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. In 1980, the Tangshan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works restored Locomotive No. 0. Before the opening of the China Railway Museum East Suburb Exhibition Hall in 2002, the locomotive was transported back to Beijing and put on display there.

　　As the only large movable artifact left from China's first government-run railway, this locomotive holds particularly important value for researching the history of China's railway development and locomotive history.