Physical meaning of the phrase "Beijing-Tianjing corridor" in the context of Sino-Japanese war?

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The significance of the Beijing-Tianjin corridor is, as you said, "Beijing's main maritime gateway."

It first obtained this significance in the Arrow War (Second Opium War) of 1856-60. After several years of desultory fighting, the British struck a decisive blow by capturing the coastal forts of Tianjin, which allowed them to land enough troops for a push to Beijing, forcing an end to the war.

A second time this became important was during the Boxer Rebellion of 1901, when the "eight" (foreign) nations used Tianjin as a "staging" point for a relief expedition to foreign legations besieged by the Boxers in Beijing.

As late as 1927, there were U.S. troops on "standby" at Tianjin during the Northern Expedition" of Chiang Kai Shek, ready to protect western interests in Beijing if necessary. Chiang, whose wife was American educated, didn't make this "necessary."

The significance of the occupation of the whole corridor by Japan during the Sino-Japanese war meant that e.g. America could not use Tianjin as the starting point of a "policing" action against Japanese forces in Beijing, but rather a major campaign would be necessary to recapture this city, probably preceded by the (difficult) recapture of Tianjin itself.

The "physical" meaning of the corridor has changed over time. In the time of the Arrow War, it just referred to "roadways" connecting the two cities. By 1937, it contained one of China's few railroads. Nowadays, there is a high speed train running between the two cities.

Upvote:3

In general, "corridor" denotes a linear geographic region with one or more major modes of transportation running its length. Usually its existence points to two very important locations at its ends, and it promotes development along its length due to the heavy traffic. In Beijing-Tianjin's case, there was a railway between the two cities (to which the Marco Polo bridge was very close).

China's few railways took on outsize importance during the early Sino-Japanese war, due to the low-to-nonexistent level of other infantry motorisation. Control of railways was the key to rapid manoeuvre and linking up distant forces in that theatre. In the case of the Beijing-Tianjin railway, the fall of Tianjin meant that Japanese forces there, composed both of the sizeable garrison prior to the war and those just landing by sea, could rapidly transport to Beiping (Beijing), which the Japanese took shortly after.

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