Foxy
- 2010-11-12
It's all RELATIVE, isn't it? If you're a smoker, you'll take any kind of passenger rail transport rather than a plane, even if you're loaded!
Sanguine
- 2010-11-12
"Fair point. My guess is plane travel is still too expensive for the masses. Although economy flights in China didn't seem overly prohibitive. I'd much rather fly than even soft sleeper on the train, just saves so much trouble."
Yes flying can be easier, depends on how far you're going. I still prefer trains for short to mid distance trips, hard sleeper works fine for me. I think the soft sleepers on Chinese trains are a tad over priced for what you're getting. Always get the top bunk when buying a hard sleeper, and you'll be plenty comfortable. That is if there isn't a crying baby, or a snoring fat guy right beneath you, which there almost always is. LOL. As for the bullet trains, still to expensive I think.
Major Admiral Whitherbottom
- 2010-11-11
My guess is plane travel is still too expensive for the masses.
Airfares for inland flights in China have significantly gone down in the past 2 years or so - common people now are allowed to pay a small fraction of the actual costs with the rest being heavily subsidised by a system known as cesuo zazhi.
Visas Schmisas
- 2010-11-10
"In China it's a different story, with Trains being the Primary source of travel. With that being the case, them having bullet trains to me seems over do. Just one mans opinion."
Fair point. My guess is plane travel is still too expensive for the masses. Although economy flights in China didn't seem overly prohibitive. I'd much rather fly than even soft sleeper on the train, just saves so much trouble.
Sanguine
- 2010-11-09
I'm not overly impressed with the Chinese to be honest. Their 5,000 year old culture is dwarfed time wise by other cultures like India, and even the United States Native American, who has been around for about 15,000 years. The age of a culture impresses me less than what they do with that time.
Now granted, in the past China was a real innovator, but that was a long, long time ago. The Chinese haven't innovated much of anything in hundreds of years.
As for fast trains, I say big whoop. This is akin to getting all fired up about America opening up new hubs, and introducing faster travel times on existing flights, because Americas, travel more by plane. Trains in the USA are hardly used anymore. In China it's a different story, with Trains being the Primary source of travel. With that being the case, them having bullet trains to me seems over do. Just one mans opinion.
Visas Schmisas
- 2010-11-08
@ Silverboy: On the high speed trains I got to hand it to them. The newer train stations and high speed rail links are really impressive both in performance and time they were finished. Only France, Japan and soon Spain (not yet completed!), have high speed rail, but I don't feel the Chinese deserve too much praise for this. After all, it was learnt from Germany and Japan, their problem is one of a lack of innovation, but excelling at imitation. This caused a lot of problems when Siemens were doing business with the Chinese, who wanted the know how, but millions of rmb can't buy years of R and D.
And I would rather have clean drinking and shower water, comprehensive welfare, unpolluted environment, than high speed trains, and the kudos of putting two men into space...didn't a little old place called the USA put men on the moon some decades ago? And didn't some cold former communist northern country put a man and a dog in space in the past:)
At least when the Japanese were being self congratulatory with their back patting we had to tolerate it, because fair play to them they innovated and developed remarkably well after the war.
What can be given can be taken away. Mexico is a prime example. Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach him, and......
Cheers
VS