China HSR News And Information: Original Translation

[AndrewJin]

After a simple lunch, basically bread bought in Enshi City and free hotel selenium tea, I started my Grand Canyon exploration.
The tourist centre, where one has to take the shuttle bus to different scenic areas.

The first time I saw the combination of Japanese , Korean and French in China.
@Nihonjin1051 hope the Japanese makes sense to you

First, a 2-km walk down in the Yunlong Geofracture.

Another Fengyu Bridge(Wind rain bridge) at the entrance of Yunlong Geofracture.

Geo-fracture, a form of Karst landform.

Many waterfalls in Yunlong Geofracture
It mush be more beautiful if the weather was better, especially a sunny day after rain.

 

[AndrewJin]

After a walk in the Yunlong Geofracture, a cable car took my up to Seven-Star Village, a hillside trail.

In the cablecar, this is the starting point if travelers don't take a cablecar(110yuan).

Cliff corridor, the first section of the hillside trail
If one is acrophobic, another trail is provided.

 

[AndrewJin]

Echo Valley
Every travelers was shouting like kids

A Stick of Incense, an icon of Grand Canyon

An online photo of the Stick of Incense

Endless route, I felt a little exhausted.
I recommend a scenic tramway be built here, really not easy to walk such a long distance, although the condition of the tail is quite good.

The final highlight before going downhill
大地山川（earth, mountain and river)

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

After a walk in the Yunlong Geofracture, a cable car took my up to Seven-Star Village, a hillside trail.
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In the cablecar, this is the starting point if travelers don't take a cablecar(110yuan).
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Cliff corridor, the first section of the hillside trail
If one is acrophobic, another trail is provided.
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View attachment 224854
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I don't understand, what is your job? Or if you are a student, what is it that you study?
You seem to be too enthralled with Railways.

 

[empirefighter]

Do u remember this map? Every project is well implemented so far.
5103km new lines(>200km/h) which are scheduled to operate/test in 2015
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More than 20000km in total at the of 2015?yes?

 

[AndrewJin]

Finally, going downhill...It is really a downhill trail, endless and endless steps from hillside trail down to the shuttle bus terminal deep in the valley.
I could't feel my legs. There is a 10-yuan escalator, but in maintenance. How I wished I could directly flying down through a slide-way, I would pay 100yuan for that and it must be a selling point of Grand Canyon.

Qing River

Birds can fly

Ultimately, at the shuttle bus terminal

Back to the vocational hotel
It is said that Tujia-style food in the hotel is super good. But I had to tackle with all the food brought from home first, constant noodle, spicy chicken, eight treasure porridge.

@cirr Did your mother and her friends have a night in this hotel? I think it's one of the best, and full price is 200-300yuan for a standard room with APP, and I managed to get 50% labour-day discount.

I don't understand, what is your job? Or if you are a student, what is it that you study?
You seem to be too enthralled with Railways.

Student yet, and outsource my work to some biomedical companies, I only have to come up with ideas and supervise their work. I went to Chongqing for a conference.

More than 20000km in total at the of 2015?yes?

Yes, more likely before spring festival of 2016. Some lines will be tested at the end of 2015, but start operation at the beginning of 2016.

 

[empirefighter]

Yes, more likely before spring festival of 2016. Some lines will be tested at the end of 2015, but start operation at the beginning of 2016.

Luckily,we have CCP~

 

[AndrewJin]

Luckily,we have CCP~

I mostly owe the achievements to Chinese people, especially workers and engineers, with the good policies of central government (CPC).

Breakfast in the vocational village hotel, Tujia noodle

Another misty morning

waiting for the bus back to Enshi City
There is only one bus daily to Linchuan City, actually nearer to the park.
But buses from and to Enshi City are every half an hour.

On the road back to Enshi City

Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu HSR, suburban Enshi City

 

[AndrewJin]

Take a taxi to Enshi Railway Station
Taxi in Enshi only requires 5yuan(less than $1) for the first 2km, then 1yuan for 500m.
The misty mountainous city is really charming, not that sort of Beijing style of smog in the winter.

Public bus stations in Enshi are of Tujia style.

Arrive at Enshi Railway Station 20 minutes before departure time.

Print tickets with TVM. One can also buy ticket with TVM, but I think buying tickets using APP and paying the bill with Alipay is much easier. For most lines, you don't have to print tickets actually and just use ID card to check-in/out, but I need all my tickets in my tickets collection.

Waiting room of Enshi Railway Station, more restaurants inside pls! When more and more travellers come to Enshi, infrastructure is the priority.

Railway station WIFI!

 

[AndrewJin]

My train, D2277(Wuhan-Chongqing North), 350km / 2.5 hours, 99.5yuan/119yuan(2nd/1st class).
I bought the first class, I wished the journey could have been longer.

Again, the parallel G50 National Expressway (Shanghai-Chongqing)

Arrive in Lichuan City, another city of Enshi Prefecture.
When I took the train back to Wuhan, I would get off in Lichuan for another exciting natural wonder.

 

[AndrewJin]

It was getting mistier when the train was approaching Chongqing Municipality.

The first station in Chongqing Municipality,
Tujia Autonomous County

From south bank of Yangtze River to the north bank.

The final midway station before Chongqing City, Changshou County（ it means longevity)

One thing foreigners will get confused is the right position of each car...
Green, purple or yellow? (each indicates a certain type of train, for example green is for 8-car bullet train) Which colour is shown on the information display only in Chinese. Sometimes 2 minutes are not enough for passengers to run from Car1 to Car16. If time is not enough, just enter a random car.

When will the train leave? Except for having a timetable APP(departure time is also shown on the information screen)，some indications are
1, nearby CRH attendants will shout at you, but sometimes Chinese ladies' voice is not loud enough.
2, platform attendants will blow their whistle.
3, The train itself will sound the horn for once.
4, smokers are entering the car.

It's OK to stretch your legs on the platform in every station, mostly the train will only stop for 2 minutes but for most cases train will arrive 1-5 minutes earlier. If u fail in taking on your train and see your train leaving, don't panic. Ask and find relevant staff, they will help you aboard the next train for free.(if there is a next train)

Finally, Chongqing! Chongqing!

Check out, Chongqing North Railway Station

END of part 2 of Andrew's Journey
Wuhan - Enshi Autonomous Prefecture - Chongqing Municipality
In part 3, I will share with your the 3-dimensional urban landscape of Chongqing, especially the transportation.

 

[TaiShang]

According to China Railway, China will adopt a new operation plan for all trains across the country, starting on July 1, 2015.

The new plan involves 2,844.5 pairs of passenger trains, including 1,696 pairs of bullet trains, 97 pairs more than the previous plan. In order to better serve the "One Belt, One Road" initiative and improve the cargo train service quality, the new plan has optimized the China-Europe and China-Asia train arrangement. There will be 21 China-Europe trains and 17 China-Asia trains in operation.

A bullet train leaves Jiujiang Railway Station, east China's Jiangxi Province, May 19, 2015. (Xinhua/Hu Guolin)

 

[AndrewJin]

According to China Railway, China will adopt a new operation plan for all trains across the country, starting on July 1, 2015.

That day will also witness the inauguration ceremony of Hefei-Fuzhou HSR!
And later I will take one-day HSR trip in less than 10 hours for nearly 2000km, four provincial capitals of Central China in one day!
Frankly, I am a little frustrated after having seen the timetable of the first phase, no through-services from Wuhan to this line so far, they got to know how much those national parks along Hefei-Fuzhou HSR appeal to us!

Wuhan-Hefei-Nanchang-Changsha-Wuhan

After this HSR line starts operation on July 1st, the transport limitation from Southeastern region to Central China will be totally conquered!

Then, the next will be corridors from Central China to Northwestern China such as Wuhan-Xi'an HSR and Hefei-Xi'an HSR. We'll have to wait in the 13th 5-year plan.

 

[AndrewJin]

Part one, from Wuhan to Enshi (by high speed train)
Part two, Enshi Grand Canyon

Now, let's begin part three.
Part 3, Chongqing! Chongqing!
First, look at the topographic map of urban districts of Chongqing.
I feel deeply sorry for Chongqing.

I'll mostly upload my own photos about the three-dimensional transportation of Chongqing. Apart from 2-day seminar, I mostly visited some historic buildings dating back to ROC and WWII and of course tried different sorts of weird methods of transport. I say weird奇葩, after u see my photos, u won't feel confused.
@powastick @ahojunk @definitelynotIndian @Gufi @Rajaraja Chola @Götterdämmerung @Nihonjin1051 @Armstrong @Edison Chen @TaiShang @Shotgunner51 @Azizam @cirr @Rasengan et al

I took Metro Line 3 from Chongqing North Railway Station. First, the train was underground and when approaching downtown, this was the first sight

crossing Jialing River, a tributary of Yangtze which flows into Yangtze in downtown Chongqing

At Niujiaotuo Station, interchange from Line3 to Line2
Let me translate this poem written by a local citizen
Love · Hometown
I love Chongqing
Love this city's mountains and rivers
Love his noise and quietness
Love his busyness and leisure
This love, no explanation...
Niujiaotuo Station, on the southern bank of Jialing River

Inside Niujiaotuo Station
The station ahead is the famous Liziba Station, which is literally inside an apartment!

 

[Edison Chen]

I wish I could have a chance to Chongqing, now please take us on your tour together, share more photos, the street view, the food, the hot grills....