The main reason for this decision, which effectively killed MacDonald Stephenson's idea, was that many of the businessmen concerned had a personal interest in protecting their investments in the established shipping companies that enjoyed a monopoly on carriage of passengers and goods into and out of China. It took a further 30 years before the idea of building a railway from Hong Kong to China was again given serious consideration. In the last decade of the 19th century increasing diplomatic and trade activity by France in Canton and the granting of a concession to Belgian interests to construct a railway from Peking to Hankow, led to diplomatic and commercial concerns from the British about protecting Hong Kong as the major trading port for South China. , Qing governor of the Kwangtung province, also made at the time a similar proposal for a railway connecting Canton with the rural hamlet of Sham Shui Po just outside the British border. Britain was at the time vastly expanding her sphere of influence in the Far East and was striving to obtain the rest of Hong Kong up to the Shenzhen River. Li saw this chance as a method to develop Sham Shui Po as another probable trading hub. Although Li did correctly prophetize the village's prosperity following to the annexation of the New Territories in 1898, Li's proposal was eventually rejected by the Central Government in favor of the budget being allocated to the much anticipated Canton–Hankow railway. The British, however, caught up with this proposal and the idea of a railway similar to this was first considered with much interest.