Cross country train travel, from Zhangjiagang to Changsha. But is England's transport better? 🙃
First and foremost, my opinions are influenced by my own personal travel experiences in the UK, so all the opinions are relative to my home country and are my own original thoughts!
Many people think of China as being a densely populated country, filled with immense skyscrapers creating the illusion of living somewhere in the future somehow. And while this rings true for some places (Chongqing, Shanghai, Shenzhen etc), a great majority of tourists never see the vast, verdant, rural areas which make China one of the most beautifully diverse countries on the planet.
One way to see this luscious Chinese oasis is to travel cross country by high-speed rail. The infrastructure of China is something to behold. Convenient, clean, punctual, stress-free, affordable- Chinese trains are everything that British trains are not.
If you buy a ticket in China, you can cancel it for free up until your just before your departure time. You can change the ticket twice too, without charge, if you need to change plans. You order the ticket using your passport number, so you queue up when your gate is called and scan in with your passport. From your gate being called to getting on the train takes a maximum of 15 minutes.
British trains offer online tickets, but from my experience, refunds are difficult and laborious. If you get on the wrong train or the wrong time you receive a big fine. If you miss your train, you didn't used to be able to claim it back (I'm not sure you can now either).
Our train was due to leave Zhangjiagang station at 0746, and it left the station at 0746. This is not to naively say that all Chinese trains are on time every time, but late delays are a rarity. Once our train was delayed by five minutes, but the hundreds of our other journeys have been on time.
To compare this to England, I can't remember the last time I caught a train that hadn't been delayed or cancelled or modified. A simple trip, from Halifax to Leeds, is consistently late for one reason or another. Both train systems are consistent, just in opposing ways!
The journey from Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu to Changsha in Hunan is a collosal 723 miles (1165 kilometres). To put this into context, it's a similar distance from Land's End to John O'Groats is by car. It takes 5 hours and 47 minutes by bullet train, and cost us (two adults and two children) ¥1218/£135 in total. The UK drive would take a whopping 17 hours, in good traffic!
For contrast, a train journey in the UK would take at least 22 hours, a coach 24-35 hours, plane 6-10 hours, or you could walk it in about 70 days! Walking would be the cheapest option, obviously, but pitching fees, hotel fees, food costs need to be factored in too, making it a very expensive excursion 🤣
You'd spend £150-300 on petrol, at least. UK trains are not budget friendly, costing between £100-300 per person! And, while some cheap deals exist, bus and coach travel costs way more than the China train and takes so much longer.
Some trains in England are outdated, dusty and wear a pungent odour usually reserved for damp, dark underpasses in inner city areas. My memories of crowded trains with no spare seats, sitting outside the perpetually opening toilet door in stuffy uncomfortable conditions travelling from north to south in my army days, still sit unfavorably in my mind.
The Chinese trains I've travelled on have been clean, free from graffiti and vandalism and are all-round pleasant places to spend hours travelling. On this train now, I have just ordered a takeaway from a station restaurant to my seat in my train carriage and a coffee from the train shop. All of the things I bought came to less than ¥120/£13, including delivery fee TO THE TRAIN!
The best you can hope for in Britain for that price is a tasteless sandwich, a pack of McCoy's salt and vinegar, a snickers bar and a weak coffee heated to 258°c. But, to be honest, I'm not sure you'd even get that much for £13! The UK is a place that takes captive audience money milking extremely seriously, and the paper cups of coffee you could get for a pound in the town centre, suddenly quadruples in value on a train.
Cynicism aside, this is unfortunately a true reflection of Britain and it's ever inflating (like a rich man's waistline) costs. China, on the other hand, is all for making necessities affordable for it's people and visitors to the country.
My final thoughts are about the intensely beautiful scenery you encounter on a standard journey in China. You may start the journey in a built up city, fly through a rural and agricultural area, traverse mountainsides, whizz through forests of lush greenery and speed over the Yangtze river all in one journey. Don't be fooled into thinking all of China is imposing structures and tinned sardine-like crowding issues. The countryside is so picturesque, so diverse, so unexpected that the train journey is a trip in itself!
Britain has some stunning views too. Coastal routes with cliff top views, mountainous terrain in Scotland and Wales and some unique architectural big city designs to keep you satisfied on a journey. Calderdale and all of Yorkshire have some truly amazing scenery which provide a feast for your eyes.
Unfortunately, you also have sweary chavs talking a bit too loudly (although Chinese travellers aren't exactly quiet!!), many run down urban areas, scratched windows, constant delays, the threat of stones being thrown at the windows, drunk scallywags, dirty seats, cramped trains, benign conversation, outdated carriages, open drug use, high ticket prices, slow journeys, overpriced essentials and an altogether more stressful journey.
I'm British and this post isn't to diss Britain (much), it is simply to highlight the differences between the countries and to show how it could and should be done in England, if the government actually cared for it's people!
So next time you visit China, try a long distance train to another city other than Shanghai and Beijing. Absorb the absolute scenes of the countryside, enjoy the experience of travel tailored towards the consumer and open your eyes to a whole new world. A beautiful world and culture that actually works!
#china #chinatravel #train #uk #transport
All photos are my own, taken from a moving bullet train between Zhangjiagang and Wuhan in China.