I'm sitting in the business class Lounge at Shanghai railway station
and I'm here for a very special reason
I'm actually taking a train from here in Shanghai to Beijing
and the reason I'm taking this train is
this line operates one of the world's fastest trains
and is China's fastest train
and it's the Fuxing CR400
it has a in service operation speed of 400km an hour
and it has a average cruising speed of about 290km an hour
so I wanted to show you guys what this train is like
I've bought a business class ticket
which is the most expensive ticket you can buy
so let's go and experience it together
it's quite a nice comfortable environment in the business class Lounge
you got some drinks and snacks
then all around here is the the boards
showing the train departure times and things like that
mine's a G14 which is scheduled to depart at 11:53
Wow, what a beautiful train that is
you're able to go straight from the
business class Lounge onto the platform
you don't have to go back through the other waiting room
which is pretty cool
we're in seat 5F
Hello
Thank you
What's your seat number?
5F
Please go forward
5F, this is our seat here
this one here
these little sweets here
this is pretty nice, the whole Carriage here
it's lovely yeah
the train is supposed to depart at 11:53
so let's just see how punctual it is
I've now got my slippers on
and my legs are stretched right out which is is great
very comfortable in indeed
got a little hook here to hang your clothes on
I apologize for the flickering lights
there's obviously the frequency of the lights causing that
but I've tried the camera on all the different settings
I can't seem to get it to stop
it's a very gray cold rainy day outside today
but nice and warm and cozy here in this seat
according to my phone we've just gone to 11:54
so it's actually we're a minute over when we supposed to depart
I will say though that generally trains are much more reliable
from a Time point of view them flying
actually this ticket, the Journey cost is 2,330 RMB
that's for a business class ticket
I'll give you the prices for regular tickets a little later
but that's significantly more expensive than I could
get a flight between Shanghai and Beijing
however flights tend to be delayed a lot more
and checking in at the train station, there's a lot less hassle
from security and that point of view
just one minute over 11:53
and we are leaving the station in Shanghai
so this is actually one of the busiest routs in China
the Shanghai to Beijing line
and this train is the G14
and I wanted this one specific
cuz I knew it was the latest Fuxing CR400
and it's China's most modern train
but interestingly this morning I read some news
just before I got on the train that either next year 2025
Chinese Railway anticipates introducing a train onto the Beijing Shanghai line
that will do an average speed of 450 km an hour
cutting the journey time down to 2 and a half hours
and that's just incredible really
so around 10 to 15 minutes into the journey
the young lady has come around and asked us if we want drinks
and the choices were orange juice, Sprite, black tea or Pepsi
and I opted for Pepsi
She also asked what I would like for lunch
and the choices were pork and rice or beef and rice
and I've gone for the beef and rice
but I've often complained or moaned a little bit about
the quality of the food on the high speed train service here
yeah not impressed with the food
I think from my experience business class food on airlines
is way better than the business class food on the high speed train
I haven't eaten much of it, not very impressed at all
this is interesting, we're beside a highway
and the cars just look as if they go so slow
we're absolutely flying past them, look
it just gives you a sense of the speed we're doing
oh you can see how slow those cars look to be moving on the highway
they were probably doing around 100 KM an hour on the highway
and we are passing them as if they're absolutely Stood Still
it is my first time on this particular train
with this business class configuration
it's very very nice, I like it
it's kind of like a little private room on a train
it actually very much reminds me of the lay out of the
first class on the Emirates A380 although that doesn't have the door
it does remind me of that
I think they maybe borrowed some of the idea here from
business class on on airlines
but it's very nice it's very very comfortable
I've had a little bit of bite to eat
I didn't eat much of the lunch
but I've eaten a couple of snacks
I've finished off my Pepsi
I'm going to get my head down on this lie flat seat
the pillow here
I'm 6 foot tall
and this is plenty big enough for me
put my glasses there
but yeah I'm going to have have a little sleep
so I'll see you a little bit later
just to give you an idea of pricing on this route on this train
as I said earlier the business class was 2330 rmb actually 2331 rmb
I've just checked
if you want first class that's 1067 rmb
and then standard class which is second class is 667 rmb
which actually I think is very very reasonable
you're on the same train
I would normally take first class they're slightly wider seats
than second class and you've got a bit more room
if you want to do some work on or laptop or something like that
I still think that's very reasonable
it's about 3.5 to 4 times the standard fare to travel in business class
and it's a little over double the first class fare
personally I wouldn't normally take this
because I think it's a bit excessive to spend this kind of money on
a Journey that's less than 5 hours
but as I say I did it because I wanted to show you guys
what the business class travel was like
on this super fast Ultra high-speed train
I've just checked the flight costs for later today
obviously because it's already 3:30 in the afternoon
so the flights are later on this evening
but an economy class flight between Shanghai and Beijing
is around about 600 rmb to 700 rmb
and if you want to go business class
it's somewhere between sort of 1600 rmb and 2000 rmb
so it is actually considerably cheaper than the train
the flight time is about 2 hours 30minute to 2 hours 40 minutes
but I think overall the time of the train being 4 hours 45 minutes
is probably not that different from the flight time
you know given the time of actually going through all the
check in and security at an airport
and having to be there and board and all that kind of stuff
obviously with a train you don't have to board anywhere
near as early as you do with a plane
it's actually really quite impressive
what China has done with high speed rail
when I first started coming here almost 20 years ago
there was no high speed rail
and I remember my very first experience on a high speed train
I went from Shanghai to Hangzhou
I forget the journey time, it's was way less than an hour
previous to that was it was above 2 hours
but on numerous times I've traveled from Shanghai to Guangzhou
and that's took like 16 or 18 hours
and previously on the green train that was a very challenging Journey
if you had a sleeper, it wasn't too bad
but I once did it in a seat
that was a journey I wouldn't really wish to repeat again
it's quite difficult doing a 17 or 18 hour journey in a train seat
but like now you've got these high speed trains
although they are more expensive than the green trains
they are not crazy expensive
a lot of westerners will often point out that
oh you know, it loses money
I think overall it probably doesn't make money
but there's a lot of things that are not easily measured
so you've got to think of the benefit
of the overall economy the high speed rail has
many many people move around on the high speed rail
during new year
they have hundreds of millions of Journeys on the high speed rail
it allows people to get back to their hometown to see their families
yeah I'm very much in favor of it
I just feel that some westerners will criticize it
because it's something that they don't have
Europe has some high speed trains
but the UK doesn't have any highp speed trains at all
and as far as I'm aware the USA doesn't have any high speed trains
but I really like traveling on on high speed trains in China
actually prefer it to flying to be honest
because it's much more comfortable
it's much more roomier
I I don't always travel business class
actually this is slightly over my budget
but I'm actually doing this so I can show you guys
what it's actually like if if you want to do it
and it's a lovely sort of compartment we had it's very private
it's very very nice
got a nice big window to look outside there
sadly it's a very easty cloudy day today
but yeah just the way it is
to give some of these cookies a try from my little cookie box
there it goes
yeah very nice very tasty quite sweet
some sort of but butter cookie, very nice
other thing that is great about traveling by train as opposed to airplane
as you get to see much more of the
Chinese Countryside or China in general
I mean looking out this lovely big panoramic window
it's a bit of a hazy misty day today
it's a bit overcast not very clear
but it's still much nicer watching the Chinese Countryside
go by than the view you would have out of a plane window
something else that I want to mention is that
you have a really good Wi-Fi connectivity on here
so you can work as if you were working in an office
There's no problem at all
I have great connectivity pretty much all the way to Beijing
so yeah that's a plus
okay so that's it
Shanghai to Beijing on the Fuxing CR400 intelligence
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