YUNG WING (November 17, 1828 – May 29, 1912) is also known as Rong Hong. Born in Zhuhai in Guangdong province, he studied in Robert Morrison's Missionary Schools as a boy and his classmates included Tong King-sing.

Yung was the first Chinese student to be educated in a U.S. university. He graduated from Yale College in 1854. While at Yale, he was a member of the Phi chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. After finishing his studies Yung Wing returned to China and worked with western missionaries as an interpreter. In 1859 he accepted an invitation to the court of the Taiping rebels in Nanjing, but his proposals aimed at increasing the efficiency of the Heavenly Kingdom were all eventually refused. In 1863 Yung Wing was dispatched to the United States by Zeng Guofan to buy machinery necessary for opening an arsenal in China capable of producing heavy weapons comparable with those of the western powers.

He persuaded the Imperial Government of the Qing Dynasty to send young Chinese to the United States to study Western science and engineering. With the government's eventual approval, he organized what came to be known as the Chinese Educational Mission, which included 120 young Chinese students, to study in the New England region of the United States beginning in 1872. The Educational Mission made significant contributions to China's civil services, engineering, and the sciences. It is worthwhile to point out that many of the brightest kids in the Chinese Educational Mission made their ways to Yale.

Yung Wing died in 1912, roughly a year after the overthrow of the Chinese Imperial rule. His grave is located at Cedar Hill Cemetery outside Hartford, Connecticut, USA.

JEME TIEN YOW (April 26, 1861 – April 24, 1919), also known as Zhan Tianyou, was a distinguished Chinese railroad engineer. He was educated at Yale College and was the Chief Engineer responsible for construction of the Imperial Peking-Kalgan Railway, the first railway constructed in China without foreign assistance.

He was born in Guangzhou, China. In 1872, twelve-years-old Zhan was chosen by the Qing imperial officials to be sent to the United States for education. Together with thirty children of similar age, Zhan arrived in Connecticut. After studying at a primary school in New Haven, he then entered a secondary school there, and in 1878, Zhan was admitted to Yale College. Zhan's major was Civil Engineering, with emphasis on railroad. Zhan received his bachelor's degree in 1881.

After going back to China, Zhan was sent to the newly formed Imperial Chinese Navy and served there for a few years.. In 1888, he found his way to become a railroad engineer. Viceroy Li Hongzhang in Peking was constructing a railroad that would link Tientsin to the coal mines in Tangshan. A British engineer Claude W. Kinder was hired as the chief engineer of the railroad. Through connections with his old schoolmates working in Peking, Zhan joined Kinder as an intern engineer. Zhan was soon promoted to full engineer, and later district engineer. The railway that Zhan worked on was later extended to become the Peking Mukden Line. Zhan spent 12 years on various sections of this line before his next major assignment.

In 1902, Yuan Shikai decided to build a special line for Empress Dowager Cixi to visit the Royal ancestors' tombs. Kinder was the original candidate for the chief engineer position, howevever the French were unhappy that a British was assigned to the position. Eventually, Zhan got the assignment as the chief engineer of the 37km stub line. Zhan managed to construct the railroad within budget and a very tight schedule. The Empress was pleased and permission was given to construct more railroad in China.

In 1905, the Imperial Qing government decided to build a railroad that would link the capital of Peking to the important trade city of Kalgan to the north. This railway would be of strategic importance to the Imperial government. A decision was therefore made that the railway would be built without foreign assistance. Capital would come from the government, and no foreign engineers were to be hired. Zhan was once again appointed as Chief Engineer of the railway. At the beginning, some people were skeptical that the Qing government would be able to construct the railroad in the rugged mountains North of Peking all by itself. But Zhan showed he was an able engineer and completed the work two years ahead of schedule and under budget. He was also said to be an advisor of the construction of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, for the Lo Wu Bridge built in 1906.

Zhan was also responsible for setting many railroad standards that are still in force in China today. The adoption of standard gauge and Janney couplers in all railroads within China were both proposed by Zhan. He was also the founding member of the China Institute of Engineers. Zhan was often called the Father of China's Railroad. Zhan died in Hankou in 1919 at the age of 58. A museum was established to commmerorate the works of Zhan Tianyou. The museum is located north of Beijing, near where the original Peking-Kalgan railway crossed the Great Wall and the rugged mountains north of Beijing.

TANG SHAOYI (1859—1938), also known as T'ang Shao-i, was a Chinese diplomat and politician. He was the first Prime Minister of China.

He was a native of Xiangshan, Guangdong, and studied at Yale College. Tang was a friend of Yuan Shikai, and, during the Xinhai Revolution, negotiated on the latter's behalf in Shanghai with the revolutionaries' Wu Tingfang, ending up with the recognition of Yuan as President of China.

Widely respected, he became China's first Prime Minister in 1912. He later took part in Sun Yatsen's government in Guangzhou. Tang Shaoyi opposed Sun's taking of the "Extraordinary Presidency" in 1921 on constitutional grounds and resigned his position.

In 1924, he refused an offer to be the foreign minister under Duan Qirui's provisional government in Beijing, and was later in charge of Zhongshan county where he opposed Chen Jitang. Shortly after, he moved to Shanghai and quitted politics.

When Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the invaders wanted him to collaborate but he refused. Nevertheless, he was assassinated by the Nationalist Party, who feared he could eventually be compromised.

Tang Shaoyi was the father-in-law of Wellinton Koo, who was the Chinese representative to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the President of China (1926–1927), and later the judge of the International Court of Justice at Hague (1956-1967).

(More to come...)