Seneca (Expat in China)

The high-speed trains in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Britain, Switzerland and Sweden bring you from city center to city center. But not those the Chinese have built. In Guangzhou, for example, the old station in downtown receives no high-speed trains. You have to make an hour- or hours-long journey on clogged roads to a station near Shunde in the boonies, then go through multiple layers of security checks before you can enter the station proper. All new high-speed rail lines are like that - they terminate not in their destinations but in some hickville outside, adding precious time to your journey and reducing your time there.

The first high-speed train running through Inner Mongolia autonomous region launches service on Aug 3, 2017. [Photo by Yuan Hui/chinadaily.com.cn]