jeioyoeu
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Three points need to be clarified:
1. No doubt that Japanese railway's security record is not bad. But what has helped to transform it into a myth in many people's minds is probably the fact that the wikipedia entry on "Railway accidents in Japan" is in Japanese only. As a result, only Japanese and we Chinese can read it, because Japan borrowed the Chinese writing system as one of the constituent writing systems of written Japanese.
Here we have a whole page of Japanese train accidents---derailment, crash, you name it.
search 日本の铁道事故----I'm not allowed to include links yet.
Looking for info on Shinkansen?---indeed not many deadly accidents, but look at the one occurred, most recently, on Sept. 11, 1985.
On Dec. 27, 1995, the first accident involving a passenger's death occurred:
東海道新幹線三島駅乗客転落事故
2. People in and outside China ignore that the Chinese accident occurred not on the closed, specially designed high-speed railway. If we are less strict with the standards with other countries as well---e.g., Japan, we immediately find surprising results. For example:
search Amagasaki_rail_crash
The Amagasaki rail crash which caused 106 deaths, almost 3 times the death toll of China's accident.
The high-speed train accident which occurred in 1998 in Germany also killed more than 100 people.
3. China indeed purchased high-speed train technologies from France, Germany and Japan. Yet this does not mean that no technological improved has been achieved on the basis of these products. The train used for the Beijng-Shanghai line was designed by Chinese engineers. Of course, no one can deny that the Japanese technology, among others, serves as an important foundation for later advancments. But let us not forget that---before China started to import high-speed train techonology in the middle of the last decade, China was already able to design and manufacture trains that could run at 250-320km/h. (search China Star Train). Chinese was not satisfied with the relatively low development of such precursors of Chinese fast trains and decided to import foreign techonologies, in order that a fast train network be constructed within the end of the 2000's--which indeed happened.
Without such backgrounds, China would not have been able to digest, reproduce and improve foreign technologies within 10 years. Give those trains to any country and let's see what happens.
Seriously, even now Japanese cars are still sometimes blamed for being unsafe and of low quality---especially by their German and American competitors. But look at how many people have purchased their cars---including myself. Don't believe in rumors, see things for yourself.
Despite Germany's horrible accident in 1998, China did not hesitate when attempting to import German technology---because we know that accidents are accidents---they are the anomoly.
Besides---there is no sound reason to mock China for importing foreign technologies---that is what Japan did in the 1960 and 1970s, and what the US did from the 1920s down to the end of the War.
1. No doubt that Japanese railway's security record is not bad. But what has helped to transform it into a myth in many people's minds is probably the fact that the wikipedia entry on "Railway accidents in Japan" is in Japanese only. As a result, only Japanese and we Chinese can read it, because Japan borrowed the Chinese writing system as one of the constituent writing systems of written Japanese.
Here we have a whole page of Japanese train accidents---derailment, crash, you name it.
search 日本の铁道事故----I'm not allowed to include links yet.
Looking for info on Shinkansen?---indeed not many deadly accidents, but look at the one occurred, most recently, on Sept. 11, 1985.
On Dec. 27, 1995, the first accident involving a passenger's death occurred:
東海道新幹線三島駅乗客転落事故
2. People in and outside China ignore that the Chinese accident occurred not on the closed, specially designed high-speed railway. If we are less strict with the standards with other countries as well---e.g., Japan, we immediately find surprising results. For example:
search Amagasaki_rail_crash
The Amagasaki rail crash which caused 106 deaths, almost 3 times the death toll of China's accident.
The high-speed train accident which occurred in 1998 in Germany also killed more than 100 people.
3. China indeed purchased high-speed train technologies from France, Germany and Japan. Yet this does not mean that no technological improved has been achieved on the basis of these products. The train used for the Beijng-Shanghai line was designed by Chinese engineers. Of course, no one can deny that the Japanese technology, among others, serves as an important foundation for later advancments. But let us not forget that---before China started to import high-speed train techonology in the middle of the last decade, China was already able to design and manufacture trains that could run at 250-320km/h. (search China Star Train). Chinese was not satisfied with the relatively low development of such precursors of Chinese fast trains and decided to import foreign techonologies, in order that a fast train network be constructed within the end of the 2000's--which indeed happened.
Without such backgrounds, China would not have been able to digest, reproduce and improve foreign technologies within 10 years. Give those trains to any country and let's see what happens.
Seriously, even now Japanese cars are still sometimes blamed for being unsafe and of low quality---especially by their German and American competitors. But look at how many people have purchased their cars---including myself. Don't believe in rumors, see things for yourself.
Despite Germany's horrible accident in 1998, China did not hesitate when attempting to import German technology---because we know that accidents are accidents---they are the anomoly.
Besides---there is no sound reason to mock China for importing foreign technologies---that is what Japan did in the 1960 and 1970s, and what the US did from the 1920s down to the end of the War.
well now that you know, would you still feel the same way sitting inside a Japanese shinkansen is safer than the Chinese version?
