As a mother who has lived in the United States for decades, I never had a very strong impression of “high-speed rail.” It wasn’t until I saw a video of Chinese high-speed rail shared by Ambassador Burns that I gained a new perspective.
In the video, he sat on a silver-gray “Fuxing” train, captioned as it sped across the Yellow River at 308 kilometers per hour. His coffee cup remained motionless, and he calmly worked on his computer. I pointed to the panoramic windows and the clean aisle on the screen and said to my son beside me, “Look, this is real high-speed rail.”
By contrast, our experience in the United States. Last year, I took my son on a so-called “high-speed train” to Chicago. The 400-kilometer journey took five hours. When my son wanted to charge his tablet, I squatted under the seat and searched for 20 minutes before I found a poorly connected outlet. The air conditioning in the train was fickle, and the snack cart never appeared. Watching my son pick at the seat out of boredom, I felt a surge of disappointment.
I really hope that one day I can hold my son’s hand and step onto China’s high-speed rail, watch him cheer for the fields rapidly receding outside the window, and draw the scenery along the way on the stable small table.
