A weekend away in China - 2335 miles in 13.5 hours

[Allegheny1600]

Hi All,

I've been given permission to share with you the experiences of my good friend, James' recent travel adventures in China.

James is usually based in Singapore for work but was recently seconded to Hong Kong for a couple of weeks during which time, he fancied a weekend of riding "Bullet" trains.

This was to be the itinerary;

Day 1: Train G6502 Hong Kong - Guangzhou (c.50 min, 88 miles)

Day 2: Train G66 Guangzhou - Beijing (8 hours, 1428 miles)

Day 3: Train G9 Beijing - Shanghai (4.5 hours, 819 miles) (the worlds fastest scheduled train at an average speed of 181.4Mph) See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing–Shanghai_high-speed_railway

 

Starting off in West Kowloon by boarding one of these beautiful new CRH400 trains that look very smart indeed.

 

The interiors look superb!

(knowing James, this will be "comfortable" class!)

 

Arrival at Guangzhou South, which has 27 platforms dedicated to bullet trains, to see more of these stunners;

 

Also, Chinese "Velaro" copies aplenty;

 

 

Okay - I've spent longer composing this than James did riding the first leg! More soon - if there is any interest?

Cheers,

John.

 

Edited March 5, 2019 by Allegheny1600
Title changes

[Allegheny1600]

NOTE: I messed up the order of the story somewhat so here we go again!

Saturday had a 10 am departure from Guangzhou, here is James train ready to leave;

 

Home for the following eight hours;

 

It's a hard life!

 

Great food!

 

Passing scenery;

 

Not hanging around!

 

 

Some 8 hours and 1428 miles later, the train approaches Beijing. This is a really immense megacity of some 21.5 million people and still growing. While it is undoubtably 'crowded', the city does spread of an area of 16406 square kilometres, by comparison, London is "only" 1572Km square with a population of 8.1 million so London is considerably denser packed by the figures.

 

 

Edited March 6, 2019 by Allegheny1600
My confusion!

[70000 Britannia]

Some excellent photography and video there John, from James!

 

The scale of investment, the advanced bullet trains and station designs, plus the amount of rolling stock that is state-of-the-art is impressive.

 

To put that in perspective: we're enjoying Northern Trains chugging along, when they are able to run them, and asset sweated rolling stock from VT.  Add to that the amount of time it is taking to get HS2 underway and you can see, but not necessarily understand, that we have are the poorer relations.  And to think, this last weekend, we were in Rainhill, the location of the world's first scheduled passenger railway!

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I should have been following a similar itinerary last week, but a visa cock-up meant I was confined to HK... next time I hope to do the train.  Certainly beats the internal airlines for comfort

[Allegheny1600]

NOTE: I messed up the order of the story somewhat so here we go again!

Sunday had a 12 am departure from Beijing so there was time for a little trainspotting from a public area outside the station;

 

This is a Renaissance (CR400BF) train that is very pretty!

 

Comparison between the two types of CR400 train.

 

An earlier CRH380A (but not much earlier really).

 

A Chinese "Velaro" copy approaches.

 

Shortly afterwards a conventional train passes.

 

Some Chinese high speed trains are very long.

 

As are the conventional trains. This was hauled by a twin unit diesel locomotive.

 

 

 

I am very taken with these sleek machines.

 

This huge yard is just outside Shanghai Hongiao station.

 

Chinese cities are HUGE!

This was a limited stop G express so it didn't slow down at all for this city. It only stopped four times in the 4.5 hours.

 

Some sort of maintenance being performed - at 220Mph!

 

REALLY moving!

 

With arrival in Shanghai, James had to take a domestic flight to Shenzen as even Chinese trains couldn't get him back (to HK) in time!

I think I have things in the correct order now if so I'll see if there is the interest to add any further pictures/videos.

Cheers,

John.

 

 

[jamesinAsia]

Thanks John! Appreciate you writing this up on my behalf! 

[jjb1970]

It does beg the question of which part of the world is developed.... it's not just the rail network, some of the new highways and bridges in China are really rather spectacular, the Shanghai Yangtse crossings for example. 

[class26]

On 29/06/2019 at 13:14, jjb1970 said:

It does beg the question of which part of the world is developed.... it's not just the rail network, some of the new highways and bridges in China are really rather spectacular, the Shanghai Yangtse crossings for example. 

 

Developed but at what price ?

 

I wonder what would happen to Chinese NIMBYS whose property happened to be in the way of a new line or road ?

 

 

[jhb171achil]

On ‎21‎/‎04‎/‎2020 at 20:35, class26 said:

 

Developed but at what price ?

 

I wonder what would happen to Chinese NIMBYS whose property happened to be in the way of a new line or road ?

 

 

Indeed; that's the issue!

 

I suppose that in the days when European railways were built, being private companies the "big money" got what it wanted, and if that meant clearing away a native forest, cathedral, housing area or prehistoric site, well and good.

[class26]

1 hour ago, jhb171achil said:

Indeed; that's the issue!

 

I suppose that in the days when European railways were built, being private companies the "big money" got what it wanted, and if that meant clearing away a native forest, cathedral, housing area or prehistoric site, well and good.

and of course when our railways were built mid 19 century the population was far smaller.

[jhb171achil]

2 hours ago, class26 said:

and of course when our railways were built mid 19 century the population was far smaller.

True - I wonder, though, what the rural population density is in the places the Chinese one goes through!

 

(I think of the fuss recently here at home re. a proposed greenway on an old railway!)

[Theakerr]

Might also want to look at what the Chinese are doing with Magalev Technology.  We don't read or hear much about it except for the Shanghai Airport but they are actually installing other systems.  It continues to amaze me in the way that our media somehow manage to make it look as though China is still following the West

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

5 hours ago, class26 said:

and of course when our railways were built mid 19 century the population was far smaller.

 

...and most of it couldn't vote, didn't own any property and could be dehoused at will.  

[class26]

9 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

 

...and most of it couldn't vote, didn't own any property and could be dehoused at will.  

Sounds  a bit like China now !

[sir douglas]

even those who do own property are being dehoused whenever the local CCP official feels like it to stretch their muscles

[mike woo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCa1tHu73p8

Edited May 11, 2021 by mike woo

[Allegheny1600]

Hello Mike and welcome!

Thanks for posting that picture, they look lovely models. Any details on them, please?

Cheers,

John

[mike woo]

2 minutes ago, Allegheny1600 said:

您好，迈克，欢迎您！

感谢您发布该图片，它们看上去很漂亮。请提供有关它们的详细信息吗？

干杯，

约翰

Hello, Allegheny, this is a CR400AF model produced by sinomodel. If possible, I can send more photos

[Allegheny1600]

6 minutes ago, mike woo said:

Hello, Allegheny, this is a CR400AF model produced by sinomodel. If possible, I can send more photos

Thanks Mike.

Yes, please - I’d love to see more pictures.

I’d love to be able to write Chinese too, I wonder why your quote shows me doing so? Maybe you are using translation software at your end? It seems very clever if so, may I ask what software it is, please?

Cheers,

John

[mike woo]

1 minute ago, Allegheny1600 said:

谢谢迈克。

是的，请-我希望看到更多图片。

我也希望能够写中文，我想知道为什么你的报价显示我这样做？也许您最终会使用翻译软件？如果这样的话似乎很聪明，请问它是什么软件？

干杯，

约翰

 

[mike woo]

5 minutes ago, Allegheny1600 said:

谢谢迈克。

是的，请-我希望看到更多图片。

我也希望能够写中文，我想知道为什么你的报价显示我这样做？也许您最终会使用翻译软件？如果这样的话似乎很聪明，请问它是什么软件？

干杯，

约翰

In China, most people use SoGo to to write Chinese

[Claude_Dreyfus]

That is a very impressive looking model. I have seen a few Chinese high-speed trains becoming available both in N and H0. 

[mike woo]

1 minute ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

这是一个非常令人印象深刻的模型。我见过一些中国的高铁在N和H0都可以使用。 

It is HO model

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Curiosity made me check this out online. An 8 car DCC sound-fitted H0 model for $550 (excluded postage) is very competitively priced.

[melmerby]

On 06/03/2019 at 23:28, Allegheny1600 said:

 

A Chinese "Velaro" copy approaches.

 

Cheers,

John.

 

 

I thought they were Velaros!

Siemens developed a version for the Chinese market which early ones were built in Germany, later ones in China