When still a child in the 70’s, I took a train from Louisville to Nashville on the L&N Railroad. Soon after that, those passenger trains stopped running.
In most parts of America, passenger trains have gone out of style. This is a shame, because in many parts of the world, trains are still a vital part of the transportation infrastructure. In China, trains have a big role in moving people places.
Fifteen years ago in China, train travel was an adventure. Now it’s more just common sense.
My first train ride in China was in March, 1997. Some friends and I were traveling from Hong Kong with the goal to go to Lhasa. We got to Guangzhou with no problem, and a Taiwanese friend that was traveling with us got us tickets to Chengdu. We were told that it was a 24 hour trip.
We rode a hard-sleeper, which is six bunks per compartment, each compartment being open to the aisle. The trains had squatty toilets with holes that emptied on the train tracks below.
People were only supposed to smoke between cars, but it wasn’t uncommon for people to smoke in their compartments or in the aisle.
Twenty-four hours passed, and we were no where near Chengdu. Turns out it was a 48-hour train ride. That, mixed with some other problems, prevented us from making it to Lhasa.
Since then, I’ve ridden on many trains in China, some as short as 3-4 hours, most of them overnighters, and some 30-plus hours long.
I’ve had hard-seats, hard-sleepers, and soft-sleepers. I’ve been smart or lucky enough to have never taken a train during the holidays, except once for a short trip. During Chinese holidays, the regular trains are packed, so that it is — or was — nearly impossible to move.
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| Nice and clean, and fairly comfortable |
But now, China has beautiful, mostly comfortable, high-speed trains that knock a 3-hour ride down to an hour. What used to be overnight train rides are now 5-6 hour rides.
The seats, while narrow for fat American butts, provide much more leg room than economy seats on a plane. Of course, you can’t take dangerous articles on the train, but you can take food and drinks that you brought from home on the train.
You can get up and move around, watch movies on your phone or tablet with almost constant 4G on some lines.
Most trains still have the squatties, but the bullet trains also have western toilets. Some of the cars have large handicapped-accessible toilets. Best of all, they’re kept clean!
We recently traveled from Changsha to Beijing. We took one of the faster trains, and arrived in under 6 hours for what used to be an overnight trip. We brought chilled Subway sandwiches with us to eat for lunch, and had chips, fruit, and other snacks, besides.
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| Room enough to store a “snack suitcase” on the floor, hang a trash bag on the back of a seat, and stretch out to play games |
We passed through beautiful scenery, although it sped by, and enjoyed ourselves, without getting squashed by cramped plane seats.
When I ride a high-speed train in China, I wonder why America doesn’t have them. Then again, maybe it’s better if America stays away from high-speed trains. The TSA would probably forbid outside food and drinks on the trains, and the companies might try to squeeze in 6-seats per row where China only has 5. Then other countries will follow suit, and make train travel as unbearable as 21st-century air travel.
There are a lot of things to complain about in China. Train travel is not one of them. At least, not anymore.
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| Leaving a station |