World's fastest train launched in China

[malaise]

http://www.panorama.am/en/society/2009/12/26/china/
<snip>
China inaugurated on Saturday a high-speed railway with the world's fastest train running at a speed of more than 380 kmh (236 mph), the Chinese media said.

China first tested the record train on December 9 when it covered the distance of 1,067 km (663 miles) between the central city of Wuhan and Guangzhou City, a business hub at the south coast, in less than three hours, reaching a maximum speed of 394.2 kmh, Xinhua said.
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http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/284487
<snip>
China launched a new rail service that reduces travel time from Guangzou in nearby Hong Kong to Beijing by more than seven hours. The train runs at 350 kilometers per hour, setting travel time from Guangzou to Beijing to only three hours
A high-speed rail transport service project - that began in 2005 aimed at linking Guanghzou in nearby Hong Kong to Beijing in mainland China - is now operational.
Test run service for the world's fastest train started early December and ended when the first scheduled trip left the eastern metropolis of Wuhan Saturday.
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China is not spending billions bombing people into submission.

[Forkboy]

1. China will dominate this century in so many ways.

What's their GDP growing at, something like 11% or 12% a year?

[proteus_lives]

2. "China is not spending billions bombing people into submission."

No, it's cheaper to beat Tibetans to death with rifle-butts.

[Forkboy]

3. The effect is still more money for stuff like this.

They're about to kick ass for the next century without firing a war shot since Korea. There's a lesson there if we care to look.

[proteus_lives]

5. If they can keep it up or together.

China's not as united as people think.

[Forkboy]

6. We have ways of making you united, citizen.

It's going to be them or India that dominate this century. My money is on China.

[Selatius]

12. If the US is smart, it would play off India against China to prevent both from dominating.

Otherwise, China could be in a similar position to the US, world's sole superpower and thus shaper of things. India and China have been less than friendly neighbors for years now.

[TheMightyFavog]

16. China was involved ina couple of other wars after Korea...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Indian_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Soviet_border_conflict (Came close to going to war with the USSR)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War

[eridani]

24. As much as that sucks, China is pretty much limited to screwing its immediate neighbors

It is highly unlikely that there will ever be a Chinese equivalent to Northcom, Southcm, Centcom and Africom.

[Hannah Bell]

4. high speed trains are great, but the chinese do, in fact, fund a military, overt & covert.

[Forkboy]

7. This is true, but is to the tune of millions per day?

Not asking to be snarky, I genuinely don't know. I understand there's costs just in keeping a standing army, but are they channeling as much money as we are (percentage wise of GDP) into any wars or occupations, covert or otherwise?

[malaise]

10. The stats are clear as day

No other country on the planet spends more on the military than the US.

[KittyWampus]

13. Don't we spend as much as almost all other countries combined

[12string]

18. military spending

we spend more than all other countries combined.Check out the CIAfactbook.com

[Greyhound]

20. Just a little more than everybody else combined. n/t

[Statistical]

17. US spends about 3% of GDP on military, China spends about 1.6%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China#Budget_comparison

So while China doesn't spend more than the US they are hardly an example of "spending less on military gives you more for high speed rail". China spends more on military than every country on the planet other than the United States.

[L0oniX]

19. I'll go edit that Wiki too.

[Selatius]

8. Apparently, you have offended the unrec trolls' collective sense of nationalism with your comment.

I often wonder how much trade and commerce would be improved inside the US if you could move around things at such high speeds between any two major metropolitan hubs on ground. It would make the country feel a lot smaller; that's for sure, and the high speed rail network would be something people can take pride in. A properly maintained high-speed rail network is also far, far safer than any interstate highway system. In France, for instance, there have been over 2,000,000,000 passengers total on her high speed rail network, the earliest links built in the early 1980s. No one has died as a result of an accident or failure on the network.

[malaise]

9. Yep that's worth a good laugh

This is great news for the planet - we could all do way more for the development of people of we'd stop killing for the so called 'national interest'.
At the end of the day the statistics are on my side - the United States spends the most on war and there are people screaming to spend even less on people.

The Chinese have no problem borrowing from the Europeans or anyone else in their quest for development. They don't obsess over the word exceptionalism.

[lib2DaBone]

11. Well said. And think of all the jobs high-speed rail would create...

There could be a whole new industry born from overnight package delivery like UPS and Fed-Ex.

Delivery of packages to all parts of the U.S.... tracked by new computer systems. Clean, efficient...

Mag-Lev trains can go even faster.. recently testing at 360 MPH

[dysfunctional press]

15. "There could be a whole new industry born from overnight package delivery like UPS and Fed-Ex."

(psst- that industry already exists...with fedex and ups)

btw- what would be the actual dollar cost of building a nationwide maglev network?

[KittyWampus]

14. the way China simply ignores safety and engineering requirements I wouldn't really want to take that

train.

True China isn't spending billions on bombs, but they are beating down ethnic minorities which never gets much coverage (not just Tibet). China is poisoning the world with lead. They just complete a dam situated on an earthquake zone.

My money is on India.

[malaise]

22. Study India and get back to me

To put it mildly the planet is fugged.

[happy_liberal]

21. this is the kind of stimulus we need

create jobs, save the environment....would be so much better than the banker giveaway...

[malaise]

25. Indeed

Welcome to DU

[Texasgal]

23. They can spend millions on a train

but their healthcare is in shambles.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/insight/china-s-frayed-health-care-148953.html

[Brickbat]

26. *Shrug*

I tend not to be impressed with things built with complete disregard for labor standards, building codes, environmental recommendations, and, you know, human rights.

[Shagbark Hickory]

27. Yeah but think about how fast bird flu and sars is going to spread now.

I'm just trying to think of reasons we don't want this really awesome fast train we desperately need.

[Warren DeMontague]

28. And they're headed to the moon, too.

Meanwhile, we pick our noses and let fundies write Science textbooks.

[malaise]

31. And boast about

exceptionalism.

[marmar]

29. In the movie "End of Suburbia", one of the documentary's narrators described the US rail system.....

...... as "one that the Albanians would be ashamed of."

Funny and sadly true at the same time.

[malaise]

30. To think that Senators were once owned by

the railway bosses.

[KakistocracyHater]

32. should have been California

but Arnie is a Rightie.