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Departing from Beijing West railway station.
Train No: D6747.
Origin: Beijing West, Beijing.
Destination: Shijiazhuang, Hebei.
speed limit due to old tracks.
The trip from Beijing West to Shijiazhuang is 281km (175miles) in length and takes 1hr40min. Ticket price is ¥86.50 yuan (about $14 USD).
A high-speed train entering Beijing West railway station.
Train broadcast: warm welcome, no smoking on the train...
Our train is semi-highspeed train, and for this trip it takes 1hr 40min, making two mid-way stops. For full-highspeed trains, the fastest one only takes 1hr 07min to accomplish a 175-mile journey, making no stop midway.
We're leaving center city Beijing...
and gaining some speed. We'll not reach top speed until 10 min after departure, since we're running on the old tracks in the city or some connection tracks to the main line of the high speed rail.
And now the tracks are newly-built, as we can see there's concrete and steel instead of rocks below the rail.
Apartment buildings in the outskirts of Beijing.
And here we are in the Beijing's Garden Expo area. However there's some pollution and we cannot see the gardens quite clearly...
Beijing subway line 14, connecting the garden expo center to the city.
Ready to enter the main tracks of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed Rail.
Speed limit is 160 km/h for the junction. We'll gain speed soon after that.
Beijing-Shijiazhuang Express Way on the right.
Train speed 174km/h (108mph)
The train is running very smooth at a high speed, due to the high precision of construction (special thanks to all the workers who worked really hard for this railway for 4 years!).
A bottle with water can stand upside-down on the table when the train is operating at top speed (sometimes cigarettes can stand too, and when train is moving slower like 120km/h, even a coin can stand on the table)!
Train speed reaches 243km/h (151mph)
Besides the fact that the trip is steady, it's also quiet in the car. You don't need to speak aloud like on a plane. It's nice to read books, watch movies or take a nap on the train.
The trip with no stops can sometimes be boring. If you're not a rail fan, please navigate to 20'30''...
Broadcast: Train approaching Zhuozhou East (Zhuozhoudong) railway station.
Every highspeed train in China is equipped with English broadcast. Therefore when English speakers ask me for any tips when travelling by train in China, I always recommended taking high-speed trains. Lots of high-speed train stations offer English service.
As we're approaching Zhuozhou East railway station, we're entering Hebei province. Zhuozhou is often regarded as a satellite city of Beijing, with a population of 0.6 million.
Slowing down...
We're now 50km (31mi) from Beijing.
This station serves high-speed rail only and is not built in the city. In fact, lots of high-speed train stations are not in the city, some are even far away from the city.
Entering platform
Our train will make a 10-minute stop making way for another train G525.
Our train is a semi-highspeed train (D-train), since the top speed is 250km/h. The G-trains, which are real highspeed trains, can reach a speed of 300km/h or even higher.
Since the G-train behind is faster, we need to make way for it.
You can jump to 28'30'' to watch the following part, since the stop time is a little too long...
Train No. D672 (Taiyuan->Beijing West) is pulling into the station.
Two trainsets (each has 8 cars) are connected together to hold more passengers. The connected trains can hold over 1200 passengers.
The G-train behind is coming in about 1 minute...
The train is coming, get ready...
G-train passing, 300 km/h
Another G-train is passing in the opposite direction in ~4 min. You can navigate to 34'40''...
High speed train approaching, please get ready...
300km/h passing... Bound for Beijing West
We are about to leave the station...
Thanks for watching!