Riding the WORLDS FASTEST Bullet Train From Shanghai to Beijing, China 🇨🇳
Summary
TLDRThe video script details an exciting journey on China's high-speed rail system, highlighting the impressive speed and efficiency of the trains. The traveler shares their experience navigating a bustling train station, the comfort and smooth ride of the train, and the convenience of amenities like Starbucks on board. Despite some challenges with seat assignments and language barriers, the overall experience showcases China's advanced rail network, which is the largest in the world with 40,000 km of track. The video ends with the traveler's arrival in Beijing, setting the stage for further exploration in the capital city.
Takeaways
- 🚄 China's High-Speed Rail (HSR) network is the largest in the world, with over 40,000 km of track, significantly more than Japan's.
- 🌐 The experience of traveling on a Chinese bullet train is smooth and fast, reaching speeds of up to 350 km/h.
- 💺 Despite being assigned seats apart, the streamlined design of the train cars offers some storage space for bags and a comfortable ride.
- ☕ Onboard amenities include Starbucks coffee and snacks, available for purchase from attendants moving through the train.
- 🚾 Train stations and the train itself are very clean, with the train even featuring a relatively spacious bathroom.
- 📍 Navigating train stations in China can be challenging due to the lack of English signage and information.
- 💰 The cost of high-speed rail tickets in China is comparable to flights for similar routes, but offers a unique travel experience.
- 🏙️ Upon arrival in Beijing, the city feels more like a bustling yet approachable metropolis compared to other mega-cities.
- 🛏️ Staying at a hotel with a good metro connection can save money and offer a comfortable stay, even when not located in the city center.
- 🌐 WeChat is a valuable tool for ordering food and services in China, but can be difficult for foreigners to access without an invitation from a Chinese resident.
- 🌟 Overall, the high-speed rail experience in China is efficient, fast, and offers a world-class transportation option for travelers.
Q & A
What does HSR stand for?
-HSR stands for High-Speed Rail, which refers to the world's fastest commercial bullet trains operated by China.
How does the amount of high-speed rail track in China compare to Japan?
-China has over 10 times the amount of high-speed rail track compared to Japan, showcasing its extensive and advanced rail network.
What was the main challenge faced by the travelers at the train station?
-The main challenge faced by the travelers was the lack of information in English, which made navigation and finding the correct platform difficult.
How long did it take for the travelers to get a coffee at Starbucks?
-It took the travelers 40 minutes to get a coffee at Starbucks due to the large number of people present.
What was notable about the seats on the high-speed train?
-The seats on the high-speed train were noted to be smaller and more narrow compared to other trains the travelers had experienced in countries like Indonesia.
What was the top speed of the high-speed train the travelers were on?
-The high-speed train the travelers were on could reach a top speed of 350 km per hour.
How much did the travelers pay for their high-speed rail seats?
-The travelers paid about 110 USD, which was roughly equivalent to 170 AUD, for their high-speed rail seats.
What was the travelers' overall impression of the high-speed rail experience?
-The travelers were impressed by the high-speed rail experience, noting the smooth ride, cleanliness, and the convenience of being able to purchase Starbucks on the train.
What was the issue with the bathroom on the train?
-While the bathroom was quite spacious, it had an unpleasant smell, which discouraged the traveler from using it.
How did the travelers find the process of navigating China without WeChat?
-The travelers found it quite difficult to navigate China without WeChat, as it is widely used for various services, including ordering food and selecting seats on trains.
What was the travelers' strategy for finding a hotel room in Beijing?
-The travelers used the Metro system to find a hotel room in a location that was not in the middle of the city, saving money while still having easy access to the city center.
Outlines
🚄 Experience on China's High-Speed Rail
The paragraph describes the author's first-hand experience with China's High-Speed Rail (HSR), known for being the fastest in the world. The author highlights the vast network of high-speed rail in China, which surpasses Japan's by ten times. The journey begins at a bustling train station, where the author encounters challenges with seating assignments and long waits for coffee. Despite the crowded conditions, the train's streamlined design and impressive speed are noted, reaching up to 350 km/h. The author also mentions the convenience of purchasing Starbucks on board and the smooth, comfortable ride, comparing it favorably to other train experiences in Asia.
🍽️ Dining and Comfort on the Train
This paragraph focuses on the amenities and services available on the high-speed train, including the dining cart and the option to order Starbucks to one's seat using WeChat. The author narrates their experience with the train's cleanliness, the availability of food and beverages, and the impressive size of the train's bathroom compared to airport facilities. The narrative also touches on the difficulty of navigating without WeChat in China and the author's amazement at being able to purchase Starbucks on a train.
📍Arrival and Exploration in Beijing
The author recounts their arrival in Beijing and the initial impressions of the city. After disembarking from the high-speed train, they navigate the busy train station and discuss the challenges of finding local food options. The paragraph also includes advice for travelers on seat selection and the importance of obtaining tickets in advance to ensure better seating arrangements. The author expresses their excitement about exploring Beijing and shares their plans to use the city's efficient metro system to travel and save on accommodation costs.
🏨 Check-in and Initial Impressions of Beijing
In this paragraph, the author describes their check-in process at the hotel and shares their initial impressions of Beijing as a city. They mention the convenience of their hotel location, the use of Hilton membership points for the stay, and the excitement of watching the Women's World Cup with the local staff. The author also talks about the city's vibrant atmosphere and the ease of getting around using the metro system. The paragraph concludes with the author's anticipation of exploring Beijing and a brief mention of their plans to eat local food.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡High-Speed Rail (HSR)
💡Bullet Trains
💡Train Station
💡Starbucks
💡Beijing
💡Travel
💡China
💡Seating Arrangement
💡Smooth Ride
💡Hotel
Highlights
China's high-speed rail system, known as HSR, is the fastest in the world, with trains that are incredibly streamlined.
China has over 10 times the amount of high-speed rail track compared to Japan, making it the largest network globally.
The experience of catching a high-speed train in China is marked by impressive and vast train stations filled with commuters and travelers.
Despite the language barrier, with information not always being available in English, the process of finding the correct platform and boarding the train is an adventure.
The high-speed rail trains in China are designed with a focus on aerodynamics, contributing to their record-breaking speeds.
Seats on the high-speed trains may be narrower than those in other countries, but they offer a smooth and comfortable ride, even at top speeds of 350 km/h.
The high-speed rail network in China connects major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, making travel efficient and convenient.
Onboard amenities such as Starbucks and a variety of food options are available, enhancing the passenger experience on these high-speed trains.
The cleanliness and orderliness of the train stations and the trains themselves are notable features of China's high-speed rail system.
The bathrooms on the high-speed trains are surprisingly spacious and well-equipped, providing a comfortable experience for passengers.
China's high-speed rail system offers a smooth ride, allowing passengers to stand and move around with ease, even at high speeds.
The cost of traveling on the high-speed rail is comparable to that of a flight, but it provides a unique and enjoyable travel experience.
Arriving in Beijing, the travelers found a bustling city with a different vibe compared to Shanghai, marking the beginning of a new exploration.
The use of technology like WeChat for ordering food and services on the train highlights the integration of digital platforms in daily life in China.
The experience of traveling on China's high-speed rail provides insights into the country's technological advancements and infrastructure development.
The high-speed rail journey from Shanghai to Beijing, covering 1200 km in just 4 hours, showcases the efficiency and reach of China's rail network.
Despite the challenges of navigating in a country with limited English, the high-speed rail experience in China is memorable and impressive.
Transcripts
China has the world's fastest commercial bullet trains you never see how fast it goes until one
comes next to you known as HSR or highspeed Rail and today I'm going to catch one very streamline
for many of us in the west bullet trains are synonymous with other parts of Asia such as
Japan but the reality is that China has over 10 times the amount of highspeed rail track
that Japan has let's check out what the world's fastest highspeed rail is all about starting with
the craziest train station I have ever seen in my life where do we go I don't know son
isn't great at all there's waiting lounge but I can't see where we're supposed to go yeah where
is that there's no information on here that's not in English which is totally fine but it's
not just not helpful to us so the information person just there let's go ask them where do we
go after finding out where we actually needed to go in the station we made our way upstairs only
to find that the station we already thought was busy was packed full of commuters and travelers
we ended up being a assigned seats apart from each other the only problem is it took 40
minutes to get a coffee at Starbucks yep people absolutely everywhere after a short wait we made
our way down to the platform and boarded our first High-Speed Rail train ready to depart for Beijing
China W all right so we are on the platform now this is the train behind
me we're encourage four but different seats so we'll see what it looks like
when we get inside but the train itself looks so cool wow very streamlined all
right so we're heading on now we can put our bags here if we need but we don't have
any oh yeah we have a thing above oh sorry sorry you're on 15 I on 13 it's okay 15 so
I'm here and you're what here no I'm in 13 oh okay right so you have a spot you can put
your bags at the Top If you need to and we have three seats on this side two seats on this side
they're actually quite small in narrow all right so we're sitting down in the chair there was a man
up there heading he fed with us we've been on trains in like Indonesia India all of that all
of the seats were wider it's a tight squeeze to be honest with you there's nowhere to put
your legs up the other one some of the other ones the one in Indonesia had like a leg flip where it
was 350 K that's true this one does go what 400 km 350 350 km an hour so that's true maybe you
have to streamline some things but you do have a little um tray table so you can use that if
you want to the space between your knees and the thing in front of you is actually large you have
a lot of room for your legs and you've got one PowerPoint down the bottom let me see if there's
one okay so you've got two PowerPoints in between three people there's a couple of spots oh a couple
of spots for your luggage bags if you have them but not that many so I'm not sure what you would
do if it wasn't a best spot but they are above us just like an airplane thing for but small baggage
like i' would say carry on to a large backpack up there you can not fit a large luggage bag at
all okay we have taken off oh departed wa it's kind of going fast already mhm oh China is the
biggest high speeed rail network in the world with 40,000 km of highp speed rail track how
much reckon second place would have how do you know that first of all but what what who do you
think how much you be second if first is 40,000 Japan and how much Dron they might have 20,000
3,000 and it is Japan are you serious over 10 times more high speed rail in China than any
other country so we pay about 110 us which was about 170 AUD our money each for the seat this
which is roughly about the same cost as a flight from Shanghai to Beijing one of the reasons why
I personally like traveling by train across foreign countries when we travel is that I get
a go one thing to know is that the plane the plane that's how fast we're going the train
is going so fast but it's so smooth my camera is standing up on its own and it's not being knocked
over it is such a smooth ride except for when you go past another bullet train and then like
you can really feel how fast you're going but I just saw someone come down the pile and she
was holding a tray of Starbucks and I think you can just buy them so we bought them it was 30 um
which I think is the same price as Starbucks but you can just get Starbucks they just come down
the street down the street down the down the aisle so we are already going really fast like
I'm looking out the side and before I can't even look at anything it's basically just zooming past
[Music]
[Music] us so there are people coming down the aisles um I got my Starbucks from them but they
had um was it heisen do hen H ha I've never had to say no I've been in DA's comment down below
do you like Ben der's or haand I don't know how say h ice cream been chilling and there's
more coffee we're stopping at the first stop it is ning and obviously some people will get
off here some people will probably get on um and then we have one more stop and then we're
in Beijing but only an hour into the 4-Hour Journey at the moment there's an hour between
here between Shanghai and n 2 hours for the next stop and then an hour for the next stop
very very clean um train stations as well even this one everything's so clean okay so I'm on
the way to the dining cart I'm going to try and get I'm going to order my own Starbucks
this is crazy I'm ordering a Starbucks on a on a train but I'm standing here and I am not falling
over this is the smoothest ride in a train I've ever been on I got up on the Indian one we took
I got up on the Indonesia one and I was like doing that like here I'm standing here normally
I'm not rocking I'm not shaking I just realized that I normally show you the bathrooms in these
sort of train videos as well so I'm going to pop in and show you what the bathroom is like
while I'm up so it's actually it's pretty big if I'm being honest it's quite a bit bigger than an
airport toilet um but it smells like quite badly I'm not going to go cuz I need to get out um but
you've got paper towel you've got toilet paper and you've got um a place to wash your hands as
well with a bin um and a place to flush there's a toilet seat cover provided if you want to use
that as well I probably would um but it smells in here so I'm going to I'm going to get out but it
is big enough um and actually pretty impressive size for a train out here in the gy way you've
also got a place to wash your hands you've got a basin and a sink soap rubbish bin all of that
wo okay that view caught me off
guard coffee Cofe yeah oh cold thank
you American American coffee no American coffee like this one oh yeah like is it just
latte just a yeah just a lot okay thank you share share grapes fruit yeah yes the
those one yeah yeah yeah and you have uh coke coke No Coke No Coke um Pepsi no none of that
water oh yeah yeah yeah yeah thank you yeah yeah uh noodle oh no nood okay all right uh
sure sh thank you yeah one 2 three can I pay
this okay that's okay sh okay so that was pretty expensive I got the um Americano and the grapes
and the water and it was 91 which I think is like $17 for two drinks and a thing of
graves so pretty expensive um but I can't I still can't believe I got Starbucks on a
train I think it's also worth noting that I think Michael just said you can order it to
your seat if you have WeChat but we can't have we can't get WeChat cuz you have to have a a current
current member invite you and then we don't know anyone they can only do it once a month so your
hotel doesn't CH to do doesn't help you either so yeah honestly getting around China without
WeChat is actually quite difficult here's the grapes look how big they are there's not that
many I've been wanting to try these grapes since like the whole time I've been here
they're so sweet oh they're Genetically Enhanced me sweet up 100% they're like
taste like cotton candy no they have cotton candy on home not like
that they're nice though they've got a pack of sugar in them but
other than that really cool I can get Starbucks on a train I'm still I'm still
fascinated
you never see how fast it goes until one comes next to you we're just on time cuz we're about
5 minutes away we just popped into is this like the outskirts of fuming for pretty quick hours
later we arrived in Beijing a whole new city to explore we grabbed our bags hopped off the
train and started the process of navigating our way to our hotel in China's capital city
all right so we made it here to Beijing we've just gotten off the train obviously
so we're just going to now find something to eat in the station probably would have
preferred having the two seats on it on their own obviously when you're traveling
as a as a couple but anyway it was fine came to get a photo and then this listen no don't
don't come
come okay that that sense is really sensitive um
that's a passport do you have to do a passport no you need a
passport so the terminal on this side is just as crazy as the terminal in Shanghai so we're
trying to find this McDonald's but I really want some noodles I want some I want some Chinese food
I'm trying to find something that I'd like to eat Starbucks should I have my fifth Starbucks from
the day I bought like three Starbucks drinks on the train oh I even okay I apologize in F we ended
up in a Japanese um place to eat I know we're in China but we had some traditional food in the
last video go check that one out if you haven't already great conversation with this one he's
uh watching the soccer it's the World Cup Australia the Maas or the ches are playing
France and it's nil nil if you arrive in China with like maybe 4 or 5 days or a week before
you catch your train try and get to a train station and get your ticket cuz then they can
assign you seats which is what happened to us we purchased the tickets 3 weeks ago however
because we arrived late people had locals had already bought tickets on on their system and
they can select seats and we can't I kind of I think I forgot to mention that but there
was a QR code menu on the uh armrest I tried to use it and it just didn't work so yeah if
you get WeChat if you're lucky enough to get WeChat that would be really handy if we going
between seats China like Indonesia would win but if we're going through overall experience China
would win in Indonesia we booked first class executive class and that was second class now
the price in first class of Indonesia was like 20 bucks Australian and the price of
second class in China is $170 $180 Australian so obviously there's a what you get for your money
is vastly different oh thank you Che sh so now the plan is to grab the Metro to where we are
staying and then show you the room I'm going to tell you what my thoughts are on China so far
okay
I this one
then oh my [Applause]
God yay oh my gosh oh my okay so we are heading down to catch the train oh my gosh
you have you have
to that was probably going to be really bad you almost heard us in the news I think we
people probably could have died then there was nowhere to go so at the end of at the bottom
of the escalator there was a small Gap to the left and to go on this side and then a bigger
gap on the right and everyone just lined up to go left even though they couldn't go anywhere
because the gap on the right was behind a pylon you couldn't see it it looked like they blocked
that off and you had to go left cuz the actual exit was behind P but it wasn't blocked off it
so everyone just could have gone right and not blocked out the actual bottom of an escalator
inste everyone just stood there yeah that was ridiculous Hest that was [Music] dangerous [Music]
street lights above this city is buzzing creatures in love getting
lost in the crowd all of these people where
are wow okay so this is our first look at Beijing you know what this feels less like
a metropolis Mega City in more like a city city a home City or something in the very first like
5 Seconds that we've been here I like it I like it I might even like it more I I've only been 2
seconds but something feels good about this place yeah after I don't know two trains to get to the
actual train the train for 4 hours another two trains to get here after six trains today that's
five didn't we take two this morning yeah 2 + 1 plus 2 2 + 1 after five trains we are almost
here okay I got a feet excuse me ah than to this is our welcome cookie the best part yum is that
delicious yeah correct [Music] delicious STS EX bedro for you thank you so much okay so right now
there is the women's football and no it's 2023 it's just the world cup doesn't matter that they
okay sorry and the Australia is playing France right now and it's gone to penal KCK penalty
kicks we won we won yay this is the room and Michael like points and stuff like that so
that's how we got this room but we normally give a little bit of tips and tricks and things like
that in my weekly newsletter so sign up to that down below you just leave your email and I send
out just a weekly update and also some tips tricks but let me quickly show you the room so yes as you
walk in you have some wardrobes over here and then it kind of just like any normal hotel room
opens up into the bed you have the TV where we just watch Australia win you have the TV
over there SC and then you have a desk with this double seat in front of the window here so he can
sit on that side I can sit on this side there's a mutual table in the middle the bathroom and it's
basically a really just white bathroom you can see through all the way to the bedroom but you can
just do that if you want shower basin pretty standard um and this was a upgrade I think as
well the best thing about it is the Double Tree cookies places like like Beijing and Shanghai
we stayed right in the middle of the city in Shanghai just because it was our first time
in China all right I apply this to places like Bangkok and then here in Beijing when you have
a good Metro System that's cheap you can save like 100 bucks a night by staying out here and
I was able to use my Hilton members Pokemon card sorry I was able to use my Hilton members points
and a little bit of cash to get this room for basically less than what we would have paid for
an a three star hotel or a two star hotel in the middle of the city all right no one cares show
me the Pokémon cards him in the last video open it oh she gave me a full on like like sticker
booster set and stuff oh did you Snorlax I haven't opened them yet are you going open
them on camera no not on camera why not are they going to care about Pokémon let me know
in the comments below if you care about Pokémon if you care about Pokémon next time I buy a deck
cuz I like to buy the different languages I'll show you okay so I ordered some what I think
is just noodles like these ones um the first one again China has been like the hardest place cuz
it's been the least amount of English to any country I've ever been so it's been like the
hardest place to order or get around and as you can see so I just picked this one
no I got a picture of a chil no no chili yeah oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I like
that there no chili a sh thank you so that was our highspeed rail experience in China
apart from it being a somewhat difficult process if you use the video and learn from
am Stakes you'll have an amazing time clean efficient worldclass transport that took us
from 1200 km from Shanghai to Beijing in Just 4 hours it was seriously impressive
in the next video we'll explore Beijing and all it has to offer hope to see you
there
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