High Speed Train from Beijing 北京 to Tianjin 天津

It was the day I needed to leave China. I was at the Beijing South Railway Station to take my high speed train from Beijing to the municipality of Tianjin. I was actually supposed to have already taken the opposite route the previous year but for some reason I couldn’t find the train station. I was under the impression that the train takes me directly from the airport to downtown Beijing but apparently it wasn’t the case. I then found a bus that brings me to downtown Beijing but that one took me four hours because of the traffic entering the city. Anyway, this would be my first time to take this route. I was thankful that I can afford the convenience the high speed train brings.

Departure Platform at Beijing South Railway Station 北京南站

Strangely enough the code for the high speed train to Tianjin starts with C as opposed to my expected G (for bullet train) and D (for high speed train). This confused me a bit since their naming conventions were different. C in this case stands for 城际 for intercity. Tiajin being another major city which Beijing has close ties with, has numerous high speed train services throughout the day. Trips leaves almost every thirty minutes with the earliest one at 6:30 in the morning and the last one at 11:30 in the evening. It was quite convenient as you can probably live in Tianjin and still work in Beijing with the trip only taking thirty minutes. When our train departed, I was pleasantly surprised to know that the train was one of the fastest I have tried. There was a time when the train speeds were mandated to be lowered oweing to some high profile accidents involving the trains. However, this one was cruising at a top speed of almost 300 kilometers per hour. Now, this is travelling.

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