350 km/h: What It's Really Like to Ride China's Bullet Train
Forget everything you know about train travel. China's high-speed rail network is a stunning marvel of 21st-century engineering, a system so efficient it shrinks a vast country and turns travel into a smooth, quiet, and surprisingly comfortable experience. A journey on one of these "bullet trains" is a destination in itself.
Let's take the classic Beijing to Shanghai route. Your experience begins in a train station that feels more like a modern airport. The sleek, bullet-nosed train glides silently into the platform. You find your comfortable, spacious seat, and with an almost imperceptible push, you're off. The real fun is watching the digital speedometer at the end of the carriage climb with relentless speed: 250, 300, 350 km/h. Outside your wide, clean window, the Chinese countryside—cities, fields, and towns—blurs into a watercolor painting. It is the most impressive, stress-free way to travel between cities in China.
Insider Tip:
Booking tickets is easy for foreigners via apps like Trip.com, which allow you to book weeks in advance. A G-series train is the fastest and most modern class. For a long journey like Beijing-Shanghai (around 4.5 hours), consider upgrading to a first-class ticket. The price difference is often reasonable, and the wider, plusher seats with more legroom make a significant difference in comfort.
