Results tagged “railways”

All hail the Beijing-Shanghai railway! The bullet train runnin' monstrosity, which will cut the commute between China's two biggest cities down from 10 hours to four, is on the track for completion in 2011 and for operation by 2012. Already, its projected to be one of the busiest and most profitable railways in China... nay, the world! As proof, an official said that a similar high-speed line, the Beijing to Tianjin route, sells out over 70% of its tickets and will recover the cost of building in about 16 years. Besides being able to rub its profitability in Amtrack's face, we couldn't give a hoot about the finances. We're just excited that we'll be able to take by-train day trips to Beijing in the near future.

Those who stayed in the city for the May holiday, did it feel more crowded to you? According to Xinhua, it was - since more than 2.45 million tourists decided to make Shanghai their holiday destination. That's about 20,000 more tourists than last year. Despite the crappy weather, these intrepid travelers trekked out to downtown Puxi, the Pearl Tower and Century Park in droves. Other fun statistics: On May 1, the Shanghai railways handled over 1.27 million passengers, over 2,700 people left from Pudong International Airport on between 7 and 8:30am, and at least 50 people missed their flights because of traffic jams due to road construction.