LIFE> Most Viewed
|
LIFE> Most Viewed
|
|
Track to the future
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-19 09:26
Passengers enjoy a quick, cheap and comfortable journey on the bullet train shuttling between Beijing and Tianjin. Yang Shizhong Beijing South, where bigger is better My slow journey into China's past We're often advised to enjoy the journey more than the goal. In that case, you'd better be quick if you want to savor the bullet train to Tianjin. The world's fastest inter-city train covers the 120 km in just 29 minutes, reaching a peak of 350 km/h. If you like to read a book or gaze at the passing countryside, this isn't for you. If, on the other hand, you want to be whisked from A to B quickly, cheaply and comfortably, China's new trains are heaven-sent. For some, it might seem predictable, even mundane. A booming country, money to burn, flexing its new economic muscle on the back of an acclaimed Olympic Games. Not so 65-year-old Yuan Yishan. He appreciates the good times because he still remembers the bad. The accountant from Tianjin has been traveling to and from Beijing for about 45 years. When we met, he had zipped up to Beijing South first thing, completed his work inside three hours and by lunchtime was waiting for his trip home to south Tianjin to prepare dinner for his grandson. "Forty years ago, it was impossible to travel between the two cities in a day and the slow train made the short trip uncomfortable," he said, looking utterly contented. "My first train to Beijing was in the early 1960s. It was a slow steam train and took about four and a half hours. We had to sit on hard wooden benches and my back was aching all over when I got off at the old Yongdingmen Station." |
