Lived in China and I'm not envious of their HSR at all. Boarding procedures are more complicated and take longer than any European Schengen airport and prices are higher than European budget airlines, let alone for Chinese purchasing power they are insanely expensive.
Together with introduction of HSR they closed many slower lines meaning travel is now less available for majority of Chinese.
Same goes for their amazing subways, they have lot of lines but usually their population per line is double of Western subways, so the result is uncomfortable overcrowded system.
Only reason to use Chinese HSR is because you don't have alternative, there are really no budget airlines and car ownership is still very low compared to west plus cheaper slower trains were cancelled, so you don't really have any other option unless you wanna take dangerous very slow bus.
> Boarding procedures are more complicated and take longer than any European Schengen airport
This is not even close to being true. Security in Chinese HSR stations is minimal. You walk through a metal detector, put your bag through a scanner, and that's it. Boarding itself takes a few minutes.
> prices are higher than European budget airlines
A 7.5-hour trip across the entire length of the country, from Guangzhou to Beijing (over 2100 km, roughly the distance from NYC to Miami, or Rome to Copenhagen), costs the equivalent of $130. It's difficult to complain about that price.
Yeah sure, or more like, wait in huge queue in front of train station to get to security check, then wait in queue to waiting room, then wait in queue on exit from waiting room to platform, then get checked at train door and finally get checked ticket while seated. Meanwhile at Schengen airport - I get checked my ticket by automated machine, then just go to security check at my boarding gate and then get checked boarding pass and get into plane. All of this without hundreds of people trying to get to same plane since usual capacity is around <200-300 compared to much more in Chinese trains.
As I said 130USD is crazy expensive when I can fly in Europe similar routers for 20-50 USD and it will take me 2 hours instead 7.5 hours. There is no difference between getting to Chinese HSR station or European airport, but it's PITA getting to actual Chinese train vs European airplane.
And let's rather not compare slow European trains where can I board the train with zero checks anywhere, heck sometimes even without checked ticket.
> Yeah sure, or more like, wait in huge queue in front of train station to get to security check, then wait in queue to waiting room, then wait in queue on exit from waiting room to platform, then get checked at train door
It has never taken me more than a few minutes to go through security in a train station in China. You're exaggerating here.
Yes, you have to get your ticket checked before going onto the platform, but that's also just a few minutes in line. There are usually several automatic ticket gates, plus one or two people manually checking.
In European airports, it can take a good hour to go through security and get to your gate, if you arrive at a busy time.
> As I said 130USD is crazy expensive when I can fly in Europe similar routers for 20-50 USD and it will take me 2 hours instead 7.5 hours.
I gave Beijing-Guangzhou as an extreme example, to show how cheap even extremely long routes are. I think most people would fly that distance. However, on a route like Beijing-Shanghai (just over 4 hours), most people would choose to take the train.
About the price, $130 to travel across a country the size of China is not crazy, regardless of how cheaply you can fly in Europe. Your trip is also not going to be merely 2 hours - that's the amount of time it takes from leaving home until takeoff, if you're cutting it close.
> There is no difference between getting to Chinese HSR station or European airport
Security in a European airport is on a completely different level from Chinese HSR stations. Yes, the German model of open platforms without ticket checks is nicer than the Chinese model of ticket checks in front of the platform, but let's not exaggerate here. On the other hand, the Chinese model of trains actually leaving and arriving on time is nice.
>It has never taken me more than a few minutes to go through security in a train station in China. You're exaggerating here.
I lived in China for years and I can guarantee you it took me NEVER just few minutes to pass through all checks. But if you visited tier 88 shithole I can see how it's not comparable with Beijing experience.
> In European airports, it can take a good hour to go through security and get to your gate, if you arrive at a busy time.
Hahahah, I just traveled in peak summer season clusterfuck this year and it took me for sure less than 10 minutes to pass through automated ticket gate and immigration check for non schengen flight to get to my security gate at boarding, all while at extremely crowded airport. I can't only imagine what experience it would be off season on Schengen flight.
> However, on a route like Beijing-Shanghai (just over 4 hours), most people would choose to take the train.
Yeah no, I also travelled this route for work few times, each time rather took flight for comparable price than slow train plus the HSR train station is further from city than old airport (which has maglev). So much faster and more comfortable experience for pretty much same price.
> Yes, the German model of open platforms without ticket checks is nicer than the Chinese model of ticket checks in front of the platform, but let's not exaggerate here.
Just out of curiosity how many years have you lived in China? Because I am not exagerating here. No delays. ROFL It must been my imagination to be stuck in middle of nowhere in train for hours, but I guess whether you travel 20 or 25 hours does not make much of an difference in the end, right... Unless you are going towards the most famous tier 1 cities delay was standard with slow trains, for sure worse than European trains at same time. It was well known fact in China trains towards Beijing had always priority because can't arrive in Beijing with delay to lose face, meanwhile facing opposite direction like Xian or Chengdu NGAF.
These are two different walkthroughs of Guangzhou South Station: [0][1]. Guangzhou is a 1st tier city, of course, not a "tier 88 sh&!/%)@." The line for security is about 10 people, and it's not nearly as strict as at an airport. You put your bag on the conveyor belt, you walk through the metal detector, someone waves a wand over you, and you pick up your bag on the other side. You could get unlucky and arrive at an extremely busy time, but it's nowhere near as bad as an airport.
> Hahahah, I just traveled in peak summer season clusterfuck this year and it took me for sure less than 10 minutes to pass through automated ticket gate and immigration check for non schengen flight to get to my security gate at boarding, all while at extremely crowded airport.
It often takes 10 minutes just to walk from security to the gate. Security can easily add on an additional hour on a bad day. 10 minutes from the curb to your gate is unheard of, unless you're running the whole way and cutting to the front of lines.
> the HSR train station is further from city than old airport (which has maglev)
It's 40 minutes from Hongqiao railway station to Nanjing Road (East), in downtown Shanghai. It takes the same amount of time from Pudong Airport to Nanjing Road (East), even if you take the maglev (because the maglev only takes you half of the way).
Suffice it to say that I've traveled enough in China and in Europe to have an idea of the typical train delays. The situation in Germany is markedly worse. Official on-time performance for long-distance trains in Germany is about 60%,[2] and I think that there's a bit of creative accounting going on to even reach that number.
Together with introduction of HSR they closed many slower lines meaning travel is now less available for majority of Chinese.
Same goes for their amazing subways, they have lot of lines but usually their population per line is double of Western subways, so the result is uncomfortable overcrowded system.
Only reason to use Chinese HSR is because you don't have alternative, there are really no budget airlines and car ownership is still very low compared to west plus cheaper slower trains were cancelled, so you don't really have any other option unless you wanna take dangerous very slow bus.