Down memory lane: High-speed trains fast-tracked life

My memories of China Daily years can be clearly traced along the railway track.

And my recall can actually be pushed back to 1983 when I spent 18 hours overnight on a "direct-express" train to Beijing to start college and the train stopped at 22 cities along the way. The travel between Beijing and my hometown in East China's Jiangsu province during my seven years in college has left me with bittersweet recollections.

Elbowing ahead among huge crowds in waiting rooms and dozing against the shoulder of classmates in the stuffy and jammed compartments were typical.

In 1990, when I landed my first and current job in this newspaper, I managed to use the "special-express" train to and from Nanjing, then a 2-hour bus ride from my hometown. That was still an overnight train, but travel time was reduced to 12 hours and things seemed better.

Reporting China to the world has been our primary mission in the past 35 years; and the Chinese New Year rush has been a favorite staple of our coverage which is picked up around the world. This year, more than 1.7 billion train trips were made in China - which means the whole population of Europe moved at least once in the two weeks.

Beyond the new year period, the railway industry itself was not a subject of frequent media coverage until 2008, when the first high-speed line, from Beijing to Tianjin, opened.

In less than a decade, the length of the high-speed railway has exceeded 20,000 kilometers, speeds ranging from 200 to 350 km/h and accounting for 60 percent of the world total.

I am a firm fan of Chinese high-speed trains, my first choice for a trip of less than 1,500 km. They are comfortable and, more importantly, punctual. I can't remember a train being more than 10 minutes late.

Now, stories on the high-speed railway pop up in our pages and websites almost every week. Premier Li Keqiang, who has enthusiastically promoted the railway, is called its "super salesman".

It will not be surprising at all if you, in two or three years, read our story about a high-speed train opening along the west coast of the United States or from Kazan to Moscow.

Today, a trip to my hometown takes only five hours. Absence may make the heart grow fonder but it is easier for me to be present there more often.

The writer is deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily.