The landmark Shanghai–to–Beijing rail link marks a new era for Chinese transit
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenSCMPPublished: 2:55pm, 30 Jun 2026This article was first published on July 1, 2011
Two South China Morning Post reporters yesterday pitted the new high-speed Shanghai–to–Beijing train against an airliner and discovered that although taking to the skies had the edge for speed, rail won out for comfort and convenience.
Will Clem was booked on the 4pm bullet train to Beijing; his colleague Shi Jiangtao on an Air China shuttle scheduled to take off 55 minutes later because of the longer check-in time required for air travel.
It was hardly the Amazing Race. Barring a significant delay, the 2½-hour flight was virtually guaranteed to arrive ahead of the train, scheduled to make the journey in just shy of five hours.
Still, why let almost certain defeat get in the way of a trip on the world’s longest high-speed train route?
