Why China's fast track impresses expats?

A mere four hours had passed since departing Beijing, when a female voice announced Shanghai as the final destination of my journey in both English and Chinese. During the afternoon, I had passed a myriad of rice fields, beautiful villages and stunning landscapes - and traveled a total distance of 1,300km. The difference between my first train journey from Beijing to Shanghai as a high school student in 2008 and now was nothing short of astounding. Nine years ago, before the introduction of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed connection, I spent around 18 hours crammed into an overcrowded compartment. This time, in 2017, I sat comfortably in one of the train’s second-class carriages enjoying the time and the landscape flying by. 

A high-speed train runs in Bose City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 22, 2016.[Photo: Xinhua]

China’s high-speed trains, defined as passenger trains traveling between 250km to 350km per hour, connect most part of the whole country, with Tibet and Ningxia soon be serviced as well, according to new expansion plans. In the past 10 years, China has constructed more than 22,000km of high-speed rail tracks, creating the longest railway network in the world. Being from Germany, a country that used to be widely praised for the innovative technology of its high-speed trains, called Intercity-Express (ICE), I was stunned when I first set foot into a Chinese train in 2013. I was traveling from Shanghai to Hangzhou and could barely believe the smooth comfort of purchasing a ticket, being able to wait in an air-conditioned waiting hall (in Germany you would usually wait directly on the platform) and experiencing a delay-free and relaxing train ride. But what are the main differences between the German ICE and the Chinese high-speed trains?

In terms of interior, China’s train has a striking similarity with Germany’s ICE. The emergency hammer next to the luggage rack, the design of the food wagon, the on-board bathrooms, the glass compartment for the train conductor – all these details are strongly reminiscent of the German high-speed trains. The differences end when taking a look at the different passenger classes. In Germany, high-speed train passengers have the option to choose from merely two classes – first and second, which are only marginally distinguishable. In China on the other hand, travelers have three different choices – first, second and business. While the second class boasts rows of five seats, separated by the middle aisle, the first class has significantly fewer seats, tremendously adding to the comfort. The Chinese train’s business class is a distant dream of luxury for German travelers. Its comfortable red seats are transformed into spacious beds on the push of a button, while neatly uniformed stewardesses are handing out complimentary refreshments. 

Punctuality is one of the most widely spread stereotypes about my country that I am regularly confronted with, as a German living abroad. And while it is true that we Germans put great emphasis on being on time and that even a two-minute delay is likely to raise a few eyebrows, our trains are maybe the biggest exception to this rule. In fact, departing and arriving on time is extremely rare. In 2016, over 21% of all German trains arrived late, with ‘on time’ being very generously defined as a delay of up to 6 minutes. According to the business-focused newspaper Handelsblatt, German trains lost a total of 174.63 million minutes due to delays in between 2015 and 2016, which mounts up to a staggering 7,945.21 hours per day. When the ICE returned from its maiden voyage on the newly opened Munich-Berlin line, the train had more than two hours delay, increasing the total time from the planned four to six hours. 

While I have spent countless hours at German railway stations waiting for my train, this has never happened to me in the past five years that I have been living in China – and I do take the train a few times per month. The only delay I experienced happened last week on my way from Ningbo to Shanghai. Albeit departing Ningbo on time, the train was five minutes late when we arrived in Shaoxing. However, when the train rolled into Shanghai’s Hongqiao Railway Station the train conductor did not only make up for the delay, we were actually early by three minutes.

Also in terms of price the Chinese trains beat the ICE by lengths. The 280km journey from Hamburg to Berlin costs EUR 50 (approx. RMB 390). Taking the train from Shanghai to Ningbo takes around two hours – traveling a total distance of 314 km and with ticket prices starting from EUR 18.50 costing less than half compared to the ICE ticket. What is priceless however, is the immaculate service attitude of China’s on-train stewardesses, who welcome every passenger with a smile upon boarding. 

When it comes to high-speed trains, Germany can definitely learn a lot from China. Living in the Middle Kingdom for several years, I was able to experience the development and rise of the country’s high-speed railways system first-handedly. And knowing about the rapid speed of innovation, I can say that I am more than looking forward to my next trip.

(Bruno Paul Gargerle is a German living in China. He is currently pursuing a postgraduate degree at the University of Nottingham's China Campus)