During the last few weeks I traveled around China. In addition to airplanes, I traveled on many different trains.
Above and below are pictures from the Changsha Railway station. It was built in 1917, and has a visibly older design. I especially liked the large torch on top of the clock tower. Also visible in the picture above is a KFC.
Beneath is a yard of the older trains used at some stations. I took one like this from the Changsha station.
Below are pictures of train stations that I went to when taking the high-speed train between cities. The stations are respectively the Xi'an North Railway Station and the Huashan North Railway Station. The north in both of these train stations' names is because both of them are in cities that have another train station for the older and slower trains.
Something that I thought was interesting was that although you can use either kind of train to get between many big cities, they are otherwise very different. One website says that traveling from Shanghai to Xi'An on the slow train costs about 30 USD, and takes around 19 hours. Traveling the same route on the high-speed train costs about 50 USD but the trip takes only 10 hours. The stations and trains are also different. The high-speed line uses new ones, but the regular trains can be much older.
While on the train, I heard a story about someone who would take a 50 hour train from Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, to Xinjiang in the very north west of China. I don't think I could do this route. The longest flight I've done was 13 hours and I think that's long enough for me.
Lastly, I took some pictures of the Shanghai Metro. Above is a picture of the train station, and below is a picture showing very high train tracks crossing an open area. From another photo you can see how from the level of the train, you can feel as if you are floating above the city.
Beneath a high road, or outside of the station, the perspective changes a lot. With massive elevated roads and trains, as well as different tiers of rail transportation it is easy to become lost inside the elevated world.
The final picture is of me eating what I believe was a fried squid, with a tiny fried octopus on top.
