How to Get Lost

Sigh.

Our last overnight train.

27 hours in soft sleeper. This time, without cabinmates. And the others in our train car were so quiet. The journey was peaceful. Almost perfect. (Don’t remind me about that slop they have the nerve to call “beer”!!!!! Next time, I will run in the other direction instead of forking down nearly $1CAD for the can.)

We left Xian around 9am, so we had all day to appreciate the Chinese countryside. This isn’t the most thrilling photo, but I can assure you, the views were more picturesque than Siberia! (Go figure!) Lack of birch trees aside, I did enjoy seeing the countryside slowly shift from wheat fields to rice terraces and banana trees.

The interior of a Chinese train is much the same as a Russian one, except lighter. The walls are light “wood” or white instead of dark, and the floors are lighter as well. This train was also quite a bit roomier than all of our previous trips. I swear we had an additional 18 inches in the aisle between the two sets of bunks!

One habit I’ve gotten into is clipping my iPod onto the little mesh shelf above my bunk. It’s the perfect place for it while I’m lying in my bunk reading or writing or knitting. It’s handy but never lost. I think Apple should sell the iPod with this caribener clip instead of the dorky neck strap. It’s much more useful. And it sort of looks like an IV drip hanging like that.

As a side note, I have about 240 songs on there. And I’m just now getting to the point of being fed up with half of them. Not bad.

My only real complaint about the Chinese trains is that instead of providing a little step ladder to the upper bunks, they give you one 3 inch square step. It’s not enough. It’s useless. Look how far down it is!!!!

Man, do I ever have more to say about last night…

This was the second long distance train we’ve taken in China (I’m not counting the train that brought us from UB to Beijing, by the way). The first train, Z1 (which runs Beijing to Shanghai), was exceedingly nice. Very comfortable, although the air conditioning kept cutting out, making the inside a bit sticky.

Last night’s train, T138, was at least steady with temperature, but a decidedly different experience. For some reason, we’ve been running into all sorts of people from Xian vacationing in both Beijing and Shanghai. Assumedly, for that reason, last night’s train was packed full. In our compartment was a business man who spent most of his waking time in another compartment with friends, and a young woman above me (I was on the bottom bunk) whose father (‘cuz I hope it wasn’t her husband … *shudders*) seemed to treat our compartment like it was part of his personal closet!

If I only knew enough Chinese to tell someone to p*ss off so I can sleep!

It also didn’t help that last night, we seemed to get a freight train engineer behing the wheel. The train lurched so often that I thought I might actually feel the urge to strangle the guy! I mean, really, this is a PASSENGER train, not a martini James Bond-style.

I have high expectations after all the Russian trains we took. Given all that we’ve seen of China thus far, I would expect their rail operations to be a tad slicker.

But we’re down to only one more long-distance train, as Amy wrote about. In a way, it’s sad, but believe it or not, I’m looking forward to not having to ride trains much anymore. I’m actually (almost) trained out. It’s a great way to travel, but a lousy way to live.

The world is already past
by the time I see it
Just a glimpse and it’s gone

Life is like that
We can only ever look back at yesterday
at this morning
at the last words we spoke

And so I watch the scenery fade
moving 70 km/h down a bumpy rail

You aren’t here
and I can’t yet see you
waiting at the end of the line

But I close my eyes and see you still
at the place I began
this long journey back to

you

A few years back, someone got the idea that China really needed to showcase its technical know-how, and put forth the idea of building one of the most technically-complex things for commercial use: a MagLev train. Magnetic levitation, while not a new idea, is an expensive proposition. Few countries have even attempted it (the major attempts have been primarily Germany and Japan, with smaller ones in England, the United States, and France), and only China has created a commercial system. At a cost estimated at $1.2 billion (US, I presume). This is for a 30km link that runs from Pudong airport to Shanghai’s state-of-the-art subway line, but not even close to the downtown core.

The technology was bought from the Germans, who were instrumental in getting the line up and running. To be sure, the Germans got a lot out of creating an actual, operating MagLev line. The line was officially opened 31 December 2002, and went into operation in early 2003.

We were told by Noah and Justin that we had to check this puppy out. With it being so close to our hotel, how could we resist?

The station is on two levels — the track is elevated (for a variety of reasons). A return ticket is 80RMB, which is only about US$10. For the trip, this is quite reasonable. Naturally, the line runs at a loss, but in the communist economy, that’s not really a concern.

The train is about 100 metres long, and all the cars are permanently linked — you can see from one end of the train to the other on the inside. Unlike some other types of MagLevs, the Shanghai system does not have wheels for lower speeds — it’s either suspended or rests on skids. You know when the train is about to leave when you start feeling like floating.

There’s not a lot of noise — important, since there are no moving parts (at least as far as the drive system is concerned). Noise is generally from vibration, assumedly coming from the changing in polarity that drives the train forward. Acceleration is smooth and very fast — you’re going over 200 km/h before you know it. But that’s not even half the upper speed — the train tops out at 431 km/h. The blur outside your window is almost frightening.

The total 30 km trip to the airport takes only 7 minutes.

If only someone had the wherewithal to build one of these puppies between Calgary and Edmonton. But I doubt anyone would ever make money from it.