China's new high-speed train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou

高铁：从香港到广州

The identikit apartment blocks and mousy-brown fields were as unremarkable as the pale scrubland. It should have made for an unremarkable entry into China’s Guangdong province. Except it wasn’t. The thrill of being aboard Hong Kong’s first bullet train, the Vibrant Express, was all about speed, not scenery.

千篇一律的公寓楼和棕灰色的田野就像灰暗的灌木丛一样平淡无奇，这本应使得进入广东省的旅程同样平淡无奇。但事实并非如此。搭乘香港子弹头列车“动感号”的刺激在于速度，而不是风景。

Aerodynamic, gleaming white and polished to perfection, the pointy-nosed train had departed Hong Kong’s brand new West Kowloon station, one of the world’s largest (partly) subterranean stations, on time. Just 48 minutes later, we glided, quietly and smoothly into Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, and China’s third-largest city, home to 14 million people.

这列闪着白光、完美无瑕的尖头列车准点驶出了全世界最大的地下火车站之一——崭新的香港西九龙火车站。仅仅48分钟后，我们悄无声息地平稳驶入了有着1400万人口的第三大城市——广东省的省会广州。

Information boards in the station claimed that the Vibrant Express is the latest of 5,000 high-speed trains that operate daily across China, part of the country’s record-breaking multi-billion-dollar expansion of high-speed rail.

火车站的信息屏上写道，“动感号”列车是每天在各地运营的高铁中的最新型，是该国创纪录、斥巨资的高铁项目的一部分。

Awestruck, and making unfavourable comparisons with the UK’s doddering rail network, I had lingered in Hong Kong’s newest station before setting off. First, I queued to dine at a branch of Tim Ho Wan, Hong Kong’s most affordable Michelin-star restaurant. I marked the paper order slip as I waited, then my number was called and I was seated. Ten minutes later, a bamboo basket of fragrant steamed shrimp dumplings, a pot of tea and a plate of tonic medlar and petal cake were delivered – all for £7.70. The dumplings were predictably good, but the “cake” was sublime – a flower-flavoured jelly made with medlars and goji berries that delivered myriad of tastes and textures

The two women I shared my table with told me, between bites of chicken feet, that they were heading home to Beiing by high-speed train.

“Why not fly?” I asked.

“Chinese aeroplanes are often delayed and the airports are far from home,” they said in unison.

出发前，笔者在香港的最新火车站闲逛，不由得肃然起敬，与英国破败不堪的铁路网作了一番令人不快的对比。笔者排队在香港的米其林餐厅“添好运”吃饭。与笔者同桌就餐的两位女士一边啃凤爪一边说，她们要乘高铁回北京。笔者问：“为什么不坐飞机？”她们异口同声地说：“的飞机经常晚点，而且机场离家太远。

Their journey would take 10 hours and cost £120 second class; my guidebook, published only last year, reported that the journey takes 24 hours. That’s how fast the Chinese rail system is develo. And it’s just as well, given the predicted volume of inbound visitors that will see China become the world’s number one tourist destination by 2030, overtaking France, according to research released this week.

她们的旅程将耗时9个小时，二等座的票价是120英镑（1英镑约合9.06元人民币——本网注）；笔者的去年刚出版的旅行指南说，旅程需要24个小时。铁路系统发展得就是这么快。这样也好，因为本周公布的研究结果显示，根据目前预计的入境旅客人数，将在2030年超过法国，成为全世界头号旅游目的国。

After the dim sum, I took a glass elevator to the pedestrian “skywalk” on the roof. Wooden walkways lined with tall grasses led to views of Hong Kong’s handsome Victoria Harbour.

吃完点心，笔者搭乘一部玻璃电梯来到屋顶的人行“空中通道”上。木质的人行道两边种着高高的草，让人看到香港美丽的维多利亚港。

We eased into Guangzhou South. Passengers, faces melded to mobile phones, disembarked, one collective army of luggage-bearers, and headed up a broad staircase. Below, rows of platforms and identical snow white high-speed trains stretched as far as the eye could see. As the doors closed on the Vibrant Express, a team of men set to work, scrubbing the sides of the train by hand. The crowd tapered towards a colossal, bright-white concourse that resembled an insanely busy airport terminal.

Even without the crowds, Guangzhou South would be disorientating. No ATM worked for me, my phone reported “no signal” and the staff at the information desk politely shook their heads when I asked if they spoke English. Eventually, my phone latched on and I found my (pre-arranged) guide, a well-travelled young Chinese woman who insisted I call her Jane, even though her Cantonese name translated beautifully as purple summer

列车缓慢驶入广州南站。埋头盯着手机的乘客下了车，形成了一支搬运行李的大军，走上宽阔的楼梯。下面，一排排站台和一模一样的高速列车尽收眼底。“动感号”的车门关闭后，一队人开始工作，手工擦拭列车的两侧。人群逐渐向一个巨大的亮白色大厅聚拢。这个大厅就像一个疯狂繁忙的机场候机楼。

笔者一眼就喜欢上了广州。这里的街道上曾经到处都是珠江三角洲的商人，如今却展示着各种稀奇古怪的新东西和非常古旧的东西。

报道认为，如今，有大约2.5万公里的高速铁路，占全世界总里程的三分之二。这次全世界有史以来规模最大的铁路扩张仍在继续创下纪录，它连接城镇，跨过山丘，穿越竹林和雪原。（文章摘自参考消息网）

外文：https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/nov/09/china-new-high-speed-train-from-hong-kong-to-guangzhou

英国卫报读者的评论：

lenny_van_ross

I guess they have forgotten to take the climate change into consideration. By 2030 China will be a hothouse few would want to visit.

没有考虑到气候变化吧。到2030年，将会是个火炉，没有多少人会想去的

Geoff Woodgate

You know they are world leaders in renewable energy

可是可再生能源的世界领袖

dhome0

See the train? Maybe the next NSW ALP government can get together with Vic Premier Andrews and get the Chinese to build a fast train system in the south east of Australia as part of China's BRI. It the only way Australia will ever see a 250–350 km/h train like that. Harsh? Not really, China has put in about 27,000 km (about 24 times the distance Sydney to Melbourne) of very fast train lines in about the same time Australia has been interminably talking about putting in any.

也许我们可以让帮忙在澳大利亚东南部修高铁

澳大利亚要想有时速250-350的高铁，也只能这样了。会难吗？澳大利亚吵着要修高铁的时候，已经建成了27000公里的高铁，大约是悉尼到墨尔本距离的24倍。

DaveKerney

Australia will never have a fast train of the like, the distances, weather, climate, patronage and a whole host of other factors make it impossible.

澳大利亚永远不会有高铁的，这很多因素造成的，比如气候

LeoDragon

The economics of an integrated high-speed countrywide rail network work rather better when you have 1.3bn people to fill the trains, as opposed to 20mn in a country of a similar size.

13亿人口的国家，修高铁是经济可行的，有充足的乘客，而澳大利亚国土面积相当，人口只有2000万

Maclon

Even in UK with densely packed population only 2% of journeys are by train. China seems the ideal place for trains.

英国人口稠密，也只有2%的人出行选择火车。似乎最适合跑火车了

peakbear

Surely linking the population centres of Brisbane - Sydney- Melbourne - ( and Adelaide?) should be a realistic goal. An ideal one for high speed rail joining the major cities in say a 3 hour journey.

可以用高铁把布里斯本、悉尼和墨尔本等几大人口众多的城市连接起来。

childofmine

China is obviously capable of embarking upon sophicated infrastructure projects. Not so sure about its quality assurance commitments... Time will tell

是基建狂魔，修基础设施的能力不是盖的。就是不知道质量如何

Papachinos

Indeed and how much of the technology was stolen.

确实，到底偷了多少技术啊

MATTANTI
the quality of their products, buildings, infrastructure and stolen tech is embarrassingly poor..

货的质量，大楼、基础设施的质量，实在让人不敢恭维

Huojolu Papachinos

No it wasn't, the original network technology was bought and paid for from German & Japanese companies and have since been improved by themselves

高铁技术最初是从德国和日本公司引进的，然后自己加以改进

Bryn Webster brettchallenger

daft comment ... china planting huge forests while uk still deforesting as a total

植树造林，而英国砍伐森林

Ian Mather

A lot faster than using your Octopus card to the border then going up from Shenzhen.

The whole Pearl River delta can be explored for a cheap (£40 ish) five day tourist visa

比用八达通卡通关速度快多了，

逛遍整个珠江三角洲，花5天就够了，费用只要40英镑

Robin Bradford

I don’t think China is saying it will be the top world tourist destination by 2030...I think it’s only Bamboo Travel that think China will be the top tourist destination by 2030. Well I guess a tourist company working in China would like to think it’s got a bright future ahead.

Having returned from 2 months travelling in China with my Chinese wife it seems clear their central government has a well thought out long term infrastructure plan and can instigate it without opposition making far easier to put into practice than in the typical two dimensional political system we have here in the West

我觉得2030年不会成为世界最大的旅游目的地。旅游公司希望看到这个美好的未来吧。

与妻子一起在呆了2个月后回来，给我的感觉是他们的中央政府对基础设施有着长期周密的规划，不会遭受反对，实施起来容易。

powellscribe

The Chinese get on with it while we dither about building a couple of hundred miles of HS2 - and Britain invented railways!

高铁获得了成功，而我们还在就修几百英里的HS2高铁而优柔寡断。

铁路可是英国发明的啊！

shellyinrome

Whilst being a nice travell broucher for China with a wrong title, the the author seems to have forgotten one of the most important facts,how fast does it go!

作者似乎没有提到一个重要的方面，那就是速度到底有多快

Sionnachog

He went 174Km in 48mins which is 217km/hour or 134mph!! (Though Google says they go190 to 220Mph). Anyway, it is fairly fast.

174公里跑了48分钟，也就是时速217公里

这速度已经够快了啊

Huojolu

Couple of years ago I travelled from Dalian to Shenyang at a maxmum speed of 304km/hour

几年前，从大连去沈阳，火车速度最快达到304公里每小时

hudge44

Indeed. 217kmh is a bit slow these days. I did i'an to Beiing last week at over 300kmh.

确实，时速217公里算有点慢了。我上周从西安到北京，最快速度超过300公里每小时

jamesc23

China will be the world’s top tourist destination by 2030, by which time a vast network of high-speed rail services will link the country.

Correction. China already has a vast network of high-speed rail services linking the country (most of it built within the last 10 years or so). It’s only recently made the news because of the HK link.

到2030年会成为世界最大旅游目的地，到时候，庞大的高铁网络将会把全国连接起来

纠正：已经建成了庞大的高铁网络，大多数高铁是过去10年建成的。

只不过最近广深港高铁通车，才为大家所熟知的

doge jamesc23

China is a big place, UK is not. It is doubtful that HS2 or any other lines will have anything but a deleterious effect on society. We are small, we need excellent small ideas uniting us.

是一个大国，而我们英国是小国。小国就该有小国的“小创意”来治国

24thfloor

The UK struggles to build 137 miles worth of HS2 between London and Birmingham not even at develo country status, the decline and disappearance of the United Kingdom through Brext.

英国修建连接伦敦到伯明翰的137英里高铁都倍感吃力。

看来脱欧以后，英国的衰退和消失在所难免。

whateverpoiuyt

Chinese growth shows Neoliberalism Isn't Working

的迅猛发展，表明新自由主义并不起作用

ID1824657

I've been to China 5 times, never had a problem

我去过5次，从来没碰到过任何麻烦

SFromNl

I really like seeing China's approach to the future of travel, good job

我很欣赏对待出行方式的选择，干得很棒

Petepost

China now has high speed rail links connecting many of it's major cities and most of these cities have their own Metro system.
Meanwhile in the UK, we don't have one single high speed rail line and many of our major cities do not have Metro systems.
Who is moving forward here?!

高铁已经连接了各大城市，而且每个大城市基本上开通了地铁。

而我们英国连一条高铁都没有，很多大城市也没有地铁。

到底是谁在进步？

Petepost

Our trains don't even reach 200km per hour, Chinese high speed trains reach in excess of 300km per hour.

我们的火车时速连200公里都不到，而高铁时速高达300公里

JonathanHughes Petepost

In fairness these Chinese trains go much bigger distances - there isn't any real (speed) reason why we need high speed rail between most cities in this country - there may well be capacity issues.

公平地说，幅员辽阔，距离远，火车长途奔袭

而我们国家真没怎么需要高铁，可能会面临上座率不高的问题

ID9634782

I have taken the HK- Guangzhou train early this year, but not the one mentioned in the article. The writer thought that the waiters in HK were surly but services in Guangzhou were another level of bad. What were written here about the train station in Guangzhou brought back the memory of being yelled to my face by a security guard for daring to ask him a question ( in broken Chinese). China is a fantastic country to visit in term of culture and beautiful landscape but it's not a welcoming country to visit so I really doubt whether it could overtake France as tourist destination. Maybe most of the increase in tourism is from domestic travel

今年初，我搭乘了香港到广州的火车，不是本文提到的广深港高铁。

作者提到香港服务员是傲慢的，可是广州的服务也不行。

本文对广州火车站的描述，勾起了我的回忆，那就是一个保安对着我大喊大叫，就因为我居然敢（用蹩脚的中文）问他一个问题。

如果是去观光，如果是去了解文化，是一个不错的选择。

大多数是国内游客。