More high speed trains, this time in China.

Taking the train is not nearly as simple a process as in Japan. All bags get scanned (admittedly in a rather haphazard way) and they don’t let you down onto the platform to wait for the train, instead lining you up in the terminal building – it’s all a bit airportish.

The last shots are of Shanghai’s Hongqiao station. It’s absolutely huge, with 28 platforms. So huge that if you don’t turn up more than half an hour before your train (thankfully Ramzi had give us fair warning) you end up having to make a bit of a run for it.

Apparently the high speed network’s a bit of a white elephant, and costs China Railways a bunch. This may be true, but every train we were on was absolutely jam packed, and it looked like they were expanding the station in Changsha (middle photo) by at least another 6 platforms, so business can’t be all bad.