Tillman Huett-Lassman

Answered Mar 26, 2017

I had my first opportunity to ride the high-speed trains last week when I had a business meeting in Zhengzhou.

As someone who grew up with a disdain for public transportation (not sure why the US hates it so much), I was dreading the experience. I pushed hard to fly, but was told that it would be much better if I took the train.The train was amazing. I had traveled on an Amtrak train before in the US, and hated how slow it was and how many stops there were. Chinese high-speed trains are on a different level.First, when I say they are high-speed, I mean they are high-speed.This was taken on my ride back to Beijing.The trains are clean and the seats are huge. There are ample power outlets and you can’t even feel how fast the train is moving. If there were no windows, I wouldn’t be able to tell when we were stopped or when we were traveling at 300 km/h—it is that smooth.My train wasn’t full, so on the ride back, I had an entire row to myself. You can use your cellphone on the train (looking at you Chinese flights—you need to learn from the trains) and you generally have full service.The trains are very advanced and the stations are new. The terminal in Zhengzhou looked like you could fit a million people in it even though it isn’t a Tier-1 city. It had shops and a food court and the trains would silently pull in and out of the station perfectly on schedule.I’m traveling again this week by train and I’m excited.The high-speed trains are incredible.

上周，我去郑州开个商务会议，有幸第一次乘坐了中国的高铁。

我从小就对美国的公共交通嗤之以鼻（不知道美国人为什么会这么讨厌公共交通），所以对坐高铁比较排斥。我本来想坐飞机去郑州的，但是周围人都告诉我，坐高铁会更好些。

中国的高铁太棒了。之前在美国的时候，我坐过美国国家铁路，我讨厌它的速度，而且它还停了很多站。中国高铁的水平完全不一样。

首先，说它们是高速铁路，我的意思是，它们真是“高速”。

这张是我乘车回北京的照片。列车很干净，座位也很大。车上有很多的电源插座，行驶时，你都感受不到列车的运行速度。如果没有窗户的话，我都没法判别，我们是在停车状态还是在时速300公里的行驶状态。

返程的时候，列车没坐满，我自己独自坐了一排座位。列车上你也可以使用手机，服务很周到。看来中国的航班，需要从高铁上学习经验了。

高铁非常先进，火车站也都是新建的。郑州虽然不是一线城市，但是它的火车站看起来，容纳一百万人是没有问题的。里面有商店和美食广场，列车也会准时安静地进出车站。

这周又坐高铁出行了，我太兴奋了。中国的高铁真是太难以置信了。

Sthitapragnya Deshpande, worked at China

Answered Apr 5, 2017

Very advanced. I first travelled by high speed trains in China a few years back, from Tianjin to Beijing. Recently, I travelled a few times by the high speed train between Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Xiamen. It was as amazing and comfortable as the first time.Booking these trains is smooth - online on an English language website.Once I reached the station (which has been designed to accommodate at least double the current number of people), I scanned my passport onto an automatic machine and it gave me the paper tickets, which I fed into the entry gates.There are about 20 such machines for Chinese people (since they have an Id card), while foreigners have 2 such machines available(for our passports). There was a police / security person around to help us.Railway stations In China - especially the newer ones like Shenzhen Bei Rlwy Stn  are always extremely comfortable to sit in, just like airports, with large indicators, and surprisingly good queue culture. Like in most stations, you sit in a large central waiting hall with shops and fast food restaurants all around, and line up at your high speed train platform about 20 minutes prior departure time.The coaches are air conditioned and comfortable, an indicator at each end of the compartment reminded us after the prompt departure that we were travelling at 200 km/hr. I would have uploaded my photos of the ride, but something in the manner in which Quora appears on my comp in China prevents this!Just like another observer here, I never even felt the high speed that the train was zooming at. The ride was smooth - I could easily write with my pen and paper. It was smoother than my earlier ride in the Eurostar from London to Paris and as smooth as my Bullet train ride in Osaka. We passed small villages, lots of fields, lots of untouched greenery as well as a few cities and stations.The train had a canteen, plus the attendants kept bringing food in their trolleys every about 20 minutes. The windows are huge so you don't feel claustrophobic at all.The first class coaches have 2 x 2 seating configuration while the second class coaches have 3x2 seating (a tad less comfortable though also air conditioned). Each seat has a plug point to charge laptops and mobiles, and this is almost always used by every passenger.There was only one irritant (for me - though other passengers seem uniquely unaffected by this). Almost everyone had videos playing on their mobile or tablet, yet no one here uses ear phones! I find this odd as ear phones give far better sound quality, and hey - they are all made in China anyway. Not to mention the fact that when 40 people play their different movies loudly, the resulting cacophony can be disturbing for everyone.Somehow, this noise does not seem to affect anyone other than me! Still, it is not as noisy, compared to train travel in other countries.I find travelling by Chinese high speed trains far more comfortable than travelling by flight, and continue to use them as much as possible.Costs:They are far cheaper than flights (188 RMB for the 3 hrs 45 mins / 607 kilometres journey from Shenzhen to Xiamen - as opposed to nearly 1200 RMB for a flight)And yes - each train has a few boiling hot water dispensers - for your cup noodles / coffee (if you are a non Chinese Lao Wai) and for your 茶 tea (if you are Chinese). The wash rooms are rather clean, and are cleaned every 30 minutes. They are as clean as the wash rooms in the Southern rail coaches that I used often in UK.

非常先进。

几年前，我第一次在中国坐高铁，从天津到北京。近些时间，我也坐了多次往返广州、深圳和厦门之间的高铁。每次乘坐，都像第一次那样，令人感到赞叹，坐着也舒服。

有专门在线的英文网站，预定这些列车的过程也很顺利。

有一次，我到了火车站（那个火车站设计的目的是为了容纳至少现在两倍的人数），我现在取票机上扫描下我的护照，机器会打出纸质的车票，凭着车票我可以进站。那里，面向中国人的取票机大概有20台，因为他们有身份证；面向外国人的取票机有2台，我们用的是护照。周围有一个警卫人员提供帮助。

中国的火车站，特别是像深圳北这样的新站，坐在里面非常舒服，就像在机场一样，有很大的显示屏，人们排队的习惯也出奇的好。就像在大多数车站一样，你坐在一个大型的中央候车厅里，周围有许多的商店和快餐店，出发前20分钟，你就可以在高铁站台上排队等候。

车厢里有空调，很舒适，每节车厢两端都有显示屏，提醒我们正以200公里的时速在行驶。我本来想传点坐车的照片，但在中国的Quora网页端出了点问题。

就像另一个人说的一样，我从来没有火车在高速行驶的感觉。列车行驶非常流畅，在上面，我可以轻松地用笔写字。与之前乘坐的伦敦到巴黎的欧洲之星相比，它更平稳平滑，跟日本大阪的子弹车差不多。我们穿过许多的小村庄、许多的农田、许多的旷野，还有许多的城市和车站。

列车上有个食堂，还有服务员每隔20分钟，就会推着满载食物的小推车经过。列车窗户很大，所以你不会有幽闭恐惧症的感觉。

一等座是2*2的座位排列，二等座是3*2的座位排列，虽然也有空调，但会稍微有点不舒服。每个座位都有一个给笔记本和手机充电的插座，几乎每位乘客都会用到。

列车上，有种情况会刺激到我，可能只是对我，因为其他乘客似乎不受影响。用手机或笔记本播放视频的每个人，几乎都不用耳机！我觉得这很奇怪，因为耳机的音质明显要好的多，而且，嘿，这些耳机都是在中国制造的嘛！当40个人大声播放他们那些不同的视频时，那感觉，不要提了，产生的杂音会干扰到每个人。

不知为何，这种噪音似乎只对我有效，其他人完全不受影响！尽管如此，与其他国家火车上的噪音相比，其实也没那么嘈杂。

我发现，坐中国高铁要比坐中国飞机舒服得多，后面的话，能坐高铁我尽量坐高铁。

价格：高铁比飞机便宜得多。

从深圳到厦门，时长3小时45分钟，距离607公里，价格188元人民币，而坐飞机要1200元人民币。而且，对，每个车站都有热水器提供热水，你可以泡泡面。如果你是老外的话，也可以泡咖啡；如果你是中国人的话，你可以泡茶。列车的卫生间非常干净，每30分钟打扫一次。我在英国时，经常使用南方铁路列车上的卫生间，中国高铁的卫生间跟它们一样干净。

Kare Skak Pedersen, China since 2010. Still love it, still learning.

Answered Feb 3, 2017

I’m a daily user of the G-trains, as their technical names are.My contribution is more about convenience and the user experience.But “How advanced” are they?I’m danish, coming from a tiny country and comparing to the quality trains we have back home, the Chinese G-train is out of this world.I will share two observations from my commutes on these trains:Accelerations- and decelerations are incredibly smooth. If I stick my nose into the mobile phone and don’t pay attention to the view from my window, I can’t tell if we’re going 300km/h (186mph) or if we have stopped at a station. “Smooth ride” is what comes to mind.When the trains back home in Denmark, on a rare occasion, reaches their near-maximum speed - half the speed of the Chinese G-train, you don’t need to look out the window to determine that we’re roaring the tracks at aprox. 150–160km/h. Everything is rattling and shaking, not bad, but you have no doubt when the danish train is going ‘all in’.The other cute detail I experienced one day, was an announcement over the speakers on the train:“For safety reasons, we are currently driving with reduced speed. We apologize for any delays on your continued travel.”A quick glance at the cabin info-system told me that we actually did run on reduced speed. 275km/h (170mph) !Sometimes they’re just so cute!

我是G字头列车的日常用户，高铁的技术名称也是G开头。

我想说说，便利性和用户体验方面。

中国高铁到底有多先进呢？我是丹麦人，丹麦是个小国家。跟丹麦的优质列车相比，中国的高铁已经和它不是一个世界的了。

我来分享坐高铁时的两个观察吧：

加速和减速时，难以置信的平稳。

如果我一直看手机，不注意车窗外的景色的话，我都不知道，我们是在时速300公里（186英里/小时）行驶状态，还是停在车站的状态。

“行驶平稳”这个词充斥我的大脑。


丹麦的火车，只有在极其罕见的情况下，才会接近或达到最高时速，就那样，速度也只有中国高铁的一半。时速150-160公里时，你不需要看窗外就能确定。什么东西都在嘎嘎作响、摇摆不定，没什么东西坏了，毫无疑问，这时候的丹麦火车已经拼尽全力行驶了。

有一天，我体验到一个可爱的细节，列车上的广播宣布：“出于安全原因，我们正在减速慢行，若给您行程带来延误，我们表示歉意。”

我迅速看了眼车厢的显示器，我们确实是在以较低的速度行驶：275公里/小时。

有时候，他们太可爱了！