Trains

We caught the bullet train when we were in China from Shaoxing to Shanghai. Shaoxing railway station used to be on the end of the No 2 bus and it was very easy to get there and back to the uni. A few years ago the No 2 bus route changed and although it was possible to still catch that bus, it stopped a bit of a walk away, then they changed the station!

The station is now several kms out of town and thee are dedicated bus to get there, it does take about an hour from the centre of town. We took a hire car to go out to the station and allowed an hour as it was the Uni finish time on a Friday and we knew it would be busy so a friend ordered a car and it cost 100rmb or around $20 and took 40 minutes.

The station is very big and open, not open to the elements but big open spaces inside. Tickets r numbered and if one has a passport then that number is required,if a Chinese national buys a ticket then their number needs to be used. Chinese people have an id card similar to USA's social security number. Seats are numbered and allocated and when boarding the train, one needs to queue at that number and the train stops right there ready for people to get on. Board from the rear and alight from the front of the car. It is very orderly.

Security is quite high with all bags an tickets checked like going on a flight, the security scanner is also used at the end of trip.

Train used to take around three hours but the bullet train trimmed it down to one hour and twenty minutes with speeds of up to 300kms an hour.

Yesterday and today I used our trains, it takes an hour to go to Brisbane a distance of about 45kms with lots of stations. Just walk into the station off the street, swipe my go card and grab a seat once the train stops.