A German tourist has gone viral after sharing their "incredible" experience riding one of China's high-speed trains, which took them nearly the full length of the country in a day.
In a TikTok video, travel influencer Ken Abroad (@kenabroadclips) reviews a train ride between Guangzhou, northwest of Hong Kong, and Beijing in the north.
@kenabroadclips Taking A Chinese High-Speed Train Across China #china #chinesetrain #highspeedtrain ♬ original sound - Ken Abroad
The journey between the two cities covers 1,428 miles — just a little less than the driving distance from California to Oklahoma.
But China's high-speed train is more than equipped for the job. Within 10 minutes of Ken's journey commencing, his train has sped up to 190 miles per hour. China's fastest trains can reach a speed of as much as 268 miles per hour.
Ken is impressed by the train's amenities too. Throughout the video, he shows off the spacious seating (enough for him, a 6-foot, 2-inch man, to sit comfortably), a drinking water fountain, and the enormous stations that serve the country's passengers.
After departing from Guangzhou at 11:53 p.m., Ken's timer shows him arriving in China's capital within 7 hours and 37 minutes.
"What's crazy is when you're sitting at your chair, you don't really notice how fast we are going," he says in the video, "but standing here at the window and seeing the trucks going by so fast, you can really feel the speed of the train."
China is home to the largest high-speed rail network in the world, with a total length of 28,000 miles. In 2021, it carried 1.9 billion passengers — a 23.1% increase from the year before.
This shift to rail travel has immense benefits both for travelers and the environment. For one thing, it tends to be cheaper than air travel.
Figures from China's Ministry of Transport show that rail travel is vastly more popular with travelers than flights – which is good news for China, which currently has the most carbon dioxide pollution in the world.
One study has shown that high-speed rail helped to drastically cut carbon pollution in China, even after accounting for the increase in pollution during construction. This effect was particularly pronounced in technologically advanced cities.
"I've taken this train a few times," one TikToker replied to the video. "Really amazing, the Chinese high-speed trains."
"Yikes. Train from Boston to NYC is four hours and only 350km. China is rocking technology," another wrote.
"For a long distance journey in the US, a train ticket is usually more expensive than a plane ticket," said another. "Trains in the US are also slow, that's one major reason why passenger trains are less popular. It needs improvement."
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