China's high speed rail phenomenon: Atrip around the world's largest high speed railway network

摘要

China's first experience of high speed rail came a few days before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, with the inauguration of the new Beijing - Tianjin 350 km/h Passenger Dedicated Line (PDL). Opening just in time to enable fans to hop to Tianjin where some of the football matches were being played, even the tickets were new style - light blue, machine-printed credit-card sized billets, easy to slip in your wallet or purse and easy to find again as you moved through the autoticket barriers and down to the dedicated platforms at the new Beijing South PDL station (figure 1). There was huge interest in the office as my esteemed and venerable professor colleague showed us all his return tickets one lunchtime, excited to be one of the first to travel at the weekend.