83.High-speed Rail Boosts Weekend Trip to Shandong

High-speed Rail Boosts Weekend Trip to Shandong

If renowned Chinese philosopher and educator Confucius were to wake up and see a high-speed train passing through his hometown, it is conceivable that he might feel the urge to hop on and take a trip to Beijing or Shanghai. After all, it would take him less than a few hours to do so, courtesy of China’s latest high-speed railway endeavor.The 819 mile Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway line, which opened at the end of June 2011, allows travelers to visit three municipalities and four provinces in less than 5 hours, with top speeds of trains traveling up to 186 mile per hour. Seats on High-speed Train Sitting in the high-speed train feels like as if you were on a racing car, with outside views pass by so fast; while at the same time getting so relaxed that I can take a nap just as lying on a house couch, as you can hardly feel the move of trains had it not been for the outside moving objects. As an international visitor, as I am, who seldom takes trains in the U.S., you can hardly imagine how convenient it is to take high-speed rail in China compared with flight. For instance, I don’t have to go to the airport one hour in advance, as I just need to be at the train station 10min before the train starts; I don’t have to turn off all my electronic devices, as I cannot bear the time without internet. In addition, the cost is also quite low, the one-way high-speed rail ticket between Beijing and cities in Shandong will only cost between 210 yuan ($33) and 1,000 yuan ($160). With the high-speed rail in service, tourists are able to easily make round-trip journeys between Beijing, Shandong and Shanghai on weekends, cutting down overall travel time and giving tourists more time to visit multiple locations. To brace itself for the potential tourism boom, Qufu, a town in East China’s Shandong province where Confucius was born more than 2,500 years ago, has stepped up the construction of roads and other infrastructure. A new avenue named after Confucius has been completed, connecting the town’s newly established high-speed railway station with its Confucius-related cultural heritage sites. The high-speed railway will string together several prominent tourism destinations, including Confucius’ birthplace of Qufu; Mount Taishan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the China’s most sacred mountains, as well as Nanjing, capital of six ancient dynasties and home to numerous imperial mausoleums. Eight of Shandong’s cities, including Jinan, Tai’an and Qingdao, set up a high-speed railway tourism union in April to enhance their competitive power and allow them to create new tourism packages and services. Please contact us at tours@travelshandong.com for more details about tour packages in Shandong. The first 100 customers will receive a map of Shandong (English)! http://www.travelshandong.com/wp-content/themes/Shandong/images/twitter-icon-32px.png