"I first saw China a little more than 35 years ago during a train trip from Hong Kong to Chengdu, a city deep in the interior of the country near the mountains that rise up into Tibet. The train was powered by steam, and the trip took four days and nights, winding through the hills and small mountains. The China I saw out of that train's window was the same one a traveler could have seen 100 or more years prior."
"I took that same train route a month ago, and instead of four days, the trip took just eight hours. The train was one of the new fully electric, high-speed ones that China now produces totally on its own. It blew through the mountains in long tunnels and often traveled at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour - faster than any train in America today or for the foreseeable future."
Thirty-five years ago a train journey from Hong Kong to Chengdu took four days on a steam-powered locomotive through hills and small mountains. The countryside once dotted with small villages and rice paddies has been replaced by massive cities and densely clustered high-rise buildings. China moved 800 million rural peasants living on about US$2 a day into city apartments and integrated them into the global economy. High-speed electric trains now complete the route in eight hours at over 200 miles per hour. Extensive electric power lines, wind turbines, and solar panels indicate a rapid shift toward an all-electric energy system and a high-capacity grid.
Read at Big Think
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