China by train: tracks, tales and a snapshot of everyday life
(The Guardian Travel News)

Chinese new year signals major travel across the country, and railways are at the heart of many journeys. Author and BBC journalist Michael Bristow knows China well - and the insight time on board offersHow to travel by high-speed train around ChinaChinese people will make nearly 400 million train trips over Chinese new year (16 February this year). Migrant workers will leave the cities and head back to the countryside to see their children; students will travel home for the long winter holiday; elderly parents will visit their grown-up children.The mass arrival of cars and planes has changed the nature of travel in China but the railways remain the country´s most important form of transport. However, trains do not just get you from A to B: in China, these often long journeys give travellers a snapshot of ordinary life, a sense of where they are. Continue reading...