All aboard the farmers' market

Editor's note: The 8361/2 slow train, chugging along the 117-kilometer railway between Shaanxi province's Hanzhong and Yangpingguan, has four hard-seat carriages plus a baggage car in which a peddlers' market is organized. The train passes three mountainous, poverty-stricken counties－Hantai, Mianxian and Ningqiang－and thus provides the most convenient method for locals to sell their agricultural produce.

The popular local specialties sold on board the train are tea, mushroom, eggs, poultry, honey, vegetables and agaric, most of which is planted, raised or collected by the farmers in the mountains. A one-way ticket costs 7.5 yuan ($1.09).

The train is now the slowest and cheapest train among the existing 81 slow trains still operating in China. The Xi'an railway bureau started running the train 14 years ago as a shuttle for railway workers living in the region, and later opened the train to locals as a poverty-alleviation project.