Thoughts on a High-Speed Train

300 km/hr is the current legal cap for high-speed trains in China. While the cars and tracks are capable of approx 450 km/hr, accidents in the early days of the rail network prompted legislation to reduce the speed to a more reasonable 300.

In a country like china, traveling on the train is much preferred to traveling by air or car. Most drivers in china are the first in their family to drive (recent economic boom) and the driving culture has not developed to a reasonably save level yet. Flying is simply not as convenient as jumping on a train when the train goes over 200 mph.  

The craziest thing about traveling this fast on the ground is the weather. You can start in Shenzhen (Shenzhen Bei Station) and end in Changsha (Changsha Nan Station) in only three hours. Why is this astounding? These two cities are more than 600 miles apart and in different climate zones. You can watch the exterior temperature tick down in real time as you travel northward. Along with the temperature, the vegetation outside the window changes rapidly. Last month, the temperature dropped from 25C to -10C in just three hours (from my perspective on the train).