{"id":227,"date":"2022-02-11T21:30:34","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T13:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roarlisf-7thseraph.space\/?p=227"},"modified":"2026-02-22T08:27:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:27:47","slug":"an-amazing-day-on-the-chinese-business-class-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/?p=227","title":{"rendered":"An Amazing Day on the Chinese Business Class Train"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This is the first time I&#8217;d returned to Shanghai as a worker. Although I took the same train as before, there&#8217;s something different this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had to book a Business Class seat, which was 2 times more expensive than a First-Class, at 1310 yuan. Each year, many workers go from their underdeveloped hometowns to big cities like Shanghai after the Spring Festival. For the first time, I&#8217;m one of them. Tickets are extremely short in supply during such period, which they call a &#8220;Spring Festival Travel Rush(\u6625\u8fd0)&#8221;. As you may expect, First\/Second Class seats were sold out very quickly, so I had to pay extra money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, sudden snow hit south-east China on Feb. 7, the very day of my train&#8217;s departure. Almost all places along the trip were snowing that day, including some warm cities like Wuxi and Changzhou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_3677-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In higher latitudes, there will be dedicated railway workers hired to clean snow on the rails, but that&#8217;s not the case for center-southern China. As a result, our train had to go very slowly at 75 km\/h (25% of usual value).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_3670-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For the passengers in second-class seats, this meant they would have a very painful journey. The train was scheduled to reach the terminal station (Shanghai Hongqiao) at 13:25, so many parents did not prepare a lunch for their kids. I heard loud cries all over the rest of the train after 13:00. Those poor children sounded like starving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_3669-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption>On Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge. The river was frozen too!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Some people were also arranged to transfer. Since Chinese high-speed trains are mostly punctual, they usually just leave a 30-60 minutes time window for transferring. On this very day though, this would spell disaster. At least they can cancel their tickets and get their money partially back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_3672-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As for me, I had to thank God that I bought Business-Class, although unwillingly. This could be the closest experience to the cozy Europe sleeper trains I&#8217;ve always been fascinated about, and it&#8217;s amazing. We&#8217;ve got seat warmers, free soft drinks, snacks and lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_3678-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The train arrived 4 hours later, at 17:30. Shanghai did not snow that day, it almost never snows here. But hey, this was really a unforgettable journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_3676-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the first time I&#8217;d returned to Shanghai as a worker. Although I took the same train as before, there&#8217;s something different this time. I had to book a Business Class seat, which was 2 times more expensive than a First-Class, at 1310 yuan. Each year, many workers go from their underdeveloped hometowns to&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/?p=227\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">An Amazing Day on the Chinese Business Class Train<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338,"href":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions\/338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suomikp31.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}