Railroad adventure IX: Soft sleeper Shanghai - Beijing
To get back from Hangzhou and Shanghai to Beijing, I had gotten tickets for a night train. There are no classes on Chinese trains, since China is a communist and thus egalitarian country. On the other hand, one may buy tickets for a soft sleeper or a hard sleeper. People without sufficient political training might take those for first and second class, but this is not what they are.
The compartment was very comfortable, new and fresh, with an individual regulator for the heat, a television screen that offered six different films on DVD (most in Chinese only, though). And the train made good speed. 1454 kilometers in 9 hours and 54 minutes. The maximum speed I noticed was 246 km/h.
The compartment was very comfortable, new and fresh, with an individual regulator for the heat, a television screen that offered six different films on DVD (most in Chinese only, though). And the train made good speed. 1454 kilometers in 9 hours and 54 minutes. The maximum speed I noticed was 246 km/h.
Railroad adventure VIII: The world's fastest train on ordinary rails
On Sunday, we took the train from Hangzhou to Shanghai. The 169 kilometer trip took no more than 45 minutes, after the train had reached its top speed of 349 km/h. I never caught a photo of that, but close enough. The train was comfortable and arrived exactly on time.
The train was spotlessly clean both on the inside and the outside. Not surprising considering that as soon as we had stopped in Shanghai, a band of cleaners started to clean the outside (but only on the right side of the train).
The train was spotlessly clean both on the inside and the outside. Not surprising considering that as soon as we had stopped in Shanghai, a band of cleaners started to clean the outside (but only on the right side of the train).
