Zhan Tianyou was born in 1861 in Nanhai, Guangdong Province, and returned to China in 1881 after graduating from Yale University in the U.S. In 1905, he was appointed as the engineer of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway General Administration. He spent four years building the 201-kilometer Jing-Zhangjiakou Railway while suffering from the humiliation of foreign powers. The project was completed two years earlier than expected, and he overcame the difficulty of building the road by climbing 33 meters in height for a straight line distance of 1,000 meters. He invented the "herringbone" turnout, winning credit for the Chinese. When Zhan Tianyou was building the railroad, he lived in the family of Ji in the Shifosi Village for a year and had a very good relationship with the the family. The house he lived in is still well preserved, and Zhan Tianyou's descendants have also visited this place to pay homage. In 2003, with the support of his descendants, the house where Zhan Tianyou lived was transformed into the Zhan Tianyou Former Residence Exhibition Hall for future generations to pay homage to.