China tours by high-speed train
Forty years ago the acclaimed travel writer Paul Theroux spent a year travelling around China by train. He wrote a book about his experience and the book became a bestseller. Titled Riding the Iron Rooster, the book ends with a chapter named “The Train to Tibet”. Theroux predicted in the book that it would be impossible for the Chinese to build a railway to Tibet due to insurmountable climatic and geological challenges including permafrost. Twenty years later the Chinese achieved what he thought to be impossible.
Not only that, the Chinese for the past 20 years have been on a building spree expanding the country’s rail network and upgrading existing railways. The world’s longest high-speed rail line opened in China on December 25, 2012, running 2,298 kilometers (1,428 miles) between Beijing and Guangzhou. The total length of China’s high speed rail network has reached 42,000 km by the end of 2022, which is more than the rest of the world’s high-speed rail tracks combined.
The new developments make it possible for tour operators like Laurus Travel to design new tours incorporating inter-city travel by train. We no longer have to worry about smelly bathrooms and other discomforts associated with train travel of the old days. The passengers won’t have to drag their suitcase up and down long flights of stairs as all the train stations serving high-speed rail are brand new, equipped with facilities commonly found at major international airports.
Travel in China by high-speed train is not only more affordable than by air but also more enjoyable and efficient when the distance is within 1,000 kilometres. And it’s good for conscience too, as train travel causes far less damage to the environment than air travel.
Chinese high-speed trains numbered with letter G in the front (G111, for example) travel at an average speed of 300km per hour while train numbers starting with letter D indicate the speed would be between 200km and 250km per hour. Feedback from our travellers who have tried China’s high-speed train has been overwhelmingly positive.