China's new high-speed train: moving steadily ahead

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Yang Di is an editor with CGTN

People sitting in the carriage of a bullet train may find themselves forgetting their whereabouts almost as fast as the train moves forwards.

This is how I felt while on board China’s fastest high-speed train to date, named Fuxing, or rejuvenation in Chinese. The train officially started service Thursday morning, running between Beijing and Shanghai, two of the most developed Chinese cities.

Fuxing can go 350 km/h, at least 50km/h faster than previous models. / Photo by China News Service

An LED screen above each carriage door reminded everyone of the train's velocity. No more than 20 minutes after the train set off, the digital board showed the speed had accelerated to 350 kilometers per hour, at least 50 km/h faster than the previous models – the new design’s selling point.

The passengers got used to the scenery flying by outside the windows too soon to link it to back to the trademark speed. Only when another train passing by from the opposite direction approached could us be waked up again to the fact that the Rejuvenation is able to reduce the length of the intercity trip by at least half an hour.

The train’s movement was steady enough for a coin or a pen to stay standing on a tray table for minutes. Free WiFi kept more heads down on smart devices than up. The combination of the two further blunted the passengers’ interest into the technological advancement that China’s made with this train.

Photo by China News Service

Commercially, high-speed train spearheads the plan by the world’s second-largest economy to upgrade the brand of “made-in-China”. Called “Made-in-China 2025”, the project is aimed to scrape the tag of marginal added value on Chinese exports.

Partly for this reason, also thanking about fifty reporters who were walking back and forth along the aisle of the carriage designated for filming and photo-taking, the train had made quite a bit splash on national as well as local media even before it arrived in Shanghai.

But the rest of the train remained largely calmed with people minding their own businesses. The journalistic fuss stopped at the carriage door as if the new page for Chinese railway hadn’t been turned on solely for the other 500 passengers on board.

Moving fast ahead while keeping everybody comfy, isn’t that a perfect embodiment of China’s dream of rejuvenation?