My last day in China (Tianjin, China)

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(Day 143 on the road)From Beijing, I took a high-speed train to the port city of Tianjin. The new dedicated high-speed train line had only opened a few weeks earlier on August 1st 2008, and is currently the fastest operating train line in the world, reaching a top speed of 350 km per hour. The trains and the signalling of the tracks are supplied by Siemens whom my friend Li works for in Beijing, but the Chinese government insist that 95%!o(MISSING)f the technology used is Chinese. Interesting.

When I had asked Li in Beijing how big Tianjin was, she said "maybe it is a little bigger". That was only a very slight understatement: With roughly 11 million people, Tianjin is actually the third biggest city in China, making it easily the biggest city in Europe (not counting Moscow to be fair).

My plan was to spend the afternoon and the night in a spa in the city that had been recommended to me by a Canadian girl whom I had met a month earlier in Lijiang. Armed with only the name of the place and the Chinese characters for SPA that Li's husband had written down for me, I had little hope of finding the place in a city of 11 million people. But amazingly, I did end up outside their doors, and spent the next 12 hours or so inside this indeed very nice spa. In a lot of the spas in China, you can stay inside for 24 hours once you have paid, thus effectively using them as a hotel. For an entrance fees of 55 yuan (about 6 Euros), you get access to various temperate pools and saunas downstairs, three huge buffet-style meals a day, and a comfy lounge area and more saunas upstairs. I watched the closing ceremony of the Olympics in their lounge, and finished the night off with a relaxing head massage before drifting off to sleep.

The next morning, I left the place at six o'clock to allow myself enough time to reach the port of Tianjin, as my ferry to Japan was scheduled to leave at 10 o'clock. In the end, I barely made it there before 10:00 (it was very difficult to reach there by public transport), only to find out that the boat actually didn't leave until 12:30.

Anyway, I boarded the ferry, and my nearly two and a half months in China came to an end.

Next stop: Kyoto (Japan).



To view my photos, have a look at pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).

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Comments

[Traverlers]

the train
The trains and the signaling of the tracks are supplied by Siemens"--this is not true. The Chinese bought high-speed train technologies from Japan, German, France and Canada. The first a couple of trains were manufactured by foreign companies. However, after digesting the technology, they came up with their own versions, which usually has higher speed than original ones and fits China’s existing rail system(high speed trains are not only used on High-Speed Rails, but also China’s existing 70k km regular rails). Although the trains might look like the same as the originals, they are indeed >95% "Made In China". China is still importing some key parts from these countries, but overall they managed to manufacture over 95% of the parts. And by the way, trains running between BJ and TJ are not only CRH3’s (Chinese version of Siemens' Velaro) but also CRH2’s(Japan’s E2), just another indication of China’s ability to absorb and consolidate different technologies.

[Traverlers is right!]

I think Traverlers is right!

[Mandy]

about CRH3 trains
as for the localization rate, the common saying on the media is 85%. about the truth, go find some work who are actually from the industry.

[Mandy]

some corrections
well, with all due respect, i'd like to correct a few things: 1. High-speed trains have to run on high-speed lines. "High-speed" actually means the speed of 300km/h and above. (therefore, the current HEXIE 200km/h EMU technically can't be called high-speed trains). in order to achieve this high speed, the trains must run on dedicated passenger lines, without freight trains or trains with lower speed. a.k.a, DPL. 2. the reason why ICE3 only runs at Max.300km/h is not because it can't, but due to many other reasons, e.g. the tracks, and mainly the fact it is unnecessary when it comes to short distance and longer long braking distance caused by higher speed. want to know how far Velaro family trains can reach? search Velaro E Spain in google, and a 404km/h figure will come out. 3. the localization rate you can read from most media is in fact 85%. but for the real story, find and ask a person from the industry.

[LivingTheDream]

Reverse Engineering
Wow guys, this entry of mine about the trains sure has sparked some discussion and controversy. To add one final thing in response to Traverlers' comment: You write that the technology initially came from abroad and that after "digesting" it, the Chinese came up with their own version, thus now making it Chinese. That however, does not make the technology "Chinese" at all. This process is commonly called Reverse Engineering. Saying that the technology that one just copied is your own is like saying that a Mozart symphony played by a Chinese orchestra is Chinese music.

[In fact, China has the copyright of its new version.]

http://www.gadling.com/2008/09/02/china-plans-236-mph-rail-link-between-shanghai-and-beijing/ China has developed the train, and has the copyright now. Interesting discussion.