China: Chinese Bullet Trains & Stations

Chinese railway system is a thing of the future, it’s like you travelled in a time machine forward several decades. Futuristic trains whisk you across the country at speeds of 350 kmh from one futuristic station to another – it’s truly incredible and amazing – it isn’t just an alternative to flying: it is a hyper-efficient, highly automated mass-transit system that feels closer to science fiction than reality. The trains feel like spaceships and are fully designed and built in China and are state-of-the-art Fuxing Hao (Revival Series) trains, featuring energy-management systems, reduced acoustic drag, and specialized dampening systems. If the trains feel like spaceships, the stations function like interstellar hubs. China built its HSR stations away from legacy downtown tracks, creating sprawling, multi-level glass-and-steep masterpieces. Everything is absolutely digital with no paper tickets (well, there is no paper money in China anymore either). We took at total of 25 trains, ranging from 30 min to 4 hour rides, all high speed as “flying” at 350-400 kmh. China has 75% of the bullet trains in the world covering 50k kilometers of rails. By comparison, Europe has 13k km with bullet trains traveling at 320 kmh (which is top speed, the reality is much slower and absolutely unreliable like in Germany or Spain), Japan’s railway system is top-notch with 3K km and speeds of 320kmh. And America? USA has 735km of crappy Acela that bumps, shakes, and grinds along absolutely obsolete rails between Boston, NYC, and DC at the wobbly 200 kmh or so. But who needs railways, let’s build a new ballroom or a triumphant arch! Or print more paper money with new portraits!