Li Yuan-Hang  From World War I Document Archive Revision as of
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navigation, search   Li Yuan-Hang.GIFSPACER.GIFLi Yuanhong.
(1864-1928). Li Yuanhong (Li Yuan-hung) was the only man to be
President of the Chinese Republic in Beijing twice, 1916-1917
and 1922-1923.  He was born in 1864, north of Hankou (Hankow),
in Hubei (Hupei) province. He began his formal education at a
private school in Tianjin (Tientsin) in 1879. In 1884, he
enrolled as a cadet at the Tianjin Naval Academy, graduating
five years later with a degree in marine engineering. Shortly
before the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, he
was assigned as chief engineer of the cruiser Guangjia at
Shanghai. On its way to Port Arthur at the beginning of the war,
the ship ran aground on a reef and was later sunk by Japanese
gunfire. Li, who could not swim, got ashore, after staying
afloat in his life belt for three hours. He made his way to Port
Arthur, where he spent the rest of the wa