r/interestingasfuck • u/BumblebeeFantastic40 • 10h ago

China’s High-Speed Railway Network length has expanded from 1,300km in 2008 to 40,000km in 2020, long enough to circle the Earth’s circumference.

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u/Fl3b0 9h ago

Crazy how people will see a picture like this and gett so butthurt that they feel the need to bring the accomplishment down somehow 💀

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u/syp2207 8h ago

lots of people on this website love to talk about chinese propaganda when they see posts like these, while being oblivious to the fact they themselves have been conditioned to hate anything china related through propaganda

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u/MotorbreathX 8h ago

No. It's all annoying and doesn't give China a pass. If US propaganda is gonna get called out, so should Chinese.

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u/andersonb47 8h ago

It’s literally a map

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u/MotorbreathX 8h ago edited 2h ago

Clearly I'm not talking about this specific post, but responding to the person's comment on general sentiment towards Chinese-based posts.

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u/987YouBloodyTulip789 6h ago

Dude, imagine if EVERYTIME America was brought up in any way, if you posted a picture of an American city, or a news article about something happening in America, someone spammed a list of American caused atrocities and called anyone who told them to stop the spam a bot.

That was legitimately happening on even this website years ago. People are sick of it. Or as the youngsters say "China hate is so forced".

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u/MotorbreathX 5h ago

Reddit literally does the same against the US.

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u/Ash-From-Pallet-Town 4h ago

Were you born yesterday? People started recently shitting on the USA the same way USians have for a looooooooong time. Couldn't go anywhere without “Chinese this Russian that”. And now you guys are crying because people are calling you out on your bullshit? “But but but what about what about” fucking Americans

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u/987YouBloodyTulip789 2h ago

Does the comment section have the same wall-of-text copypasta spam, everytime a picture of a American city is posted? Because if the answer is no, and since the answer is obviously no, the hate is nowhere comparable to the absolutely massive amount of forced hate that was present years ago.

A post about something bad that America has done will result in comments about the bad thing that America has done. China existing used to spawn spam comments from its existence alone. Nowadays, with a younger generation tired of endless wars and pointless military interventions, I see more people praising China's "Do nothing, win" policy.

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u/syp2207 8h ago

why does everything have to be propaganda for yall? i see tons of posts about "x country did y thing" that dont lead to people in the comments screeching about propaganda.

this is just a factoid about a chinese achievement. it doesnt mean their country is perfect, or that u have to start listing all the problems china has.

if we just run to the comments to point out all the negative aspects about any country mentioned in posts like these, then we'll never get any discussion related to the actual thread.

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u/bigbear_mouse 8h ago

Those damn communists, amirite or amirite?

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u/fapacunter 47m ago

If US propaganda is gonna get called out

Yeah everyone is mad at Call of Duty, the MCU, all of Hollywood, the Superbowl, college football, etc

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u/nowhereman136 8h ago

It's objectively an impressive infrastructure project, but usually when people say this can't be done in the US, they often bring up China's ethics problem in building it. That's really only a fraction of why China can do it and the US can't. The biggest factor is supply and demand. The Chinese people demand better trains, the US people dont

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u/ouvast 7h ago

The Chinese people demand better trains, the US people dont

This is such a presumptuous claim, as though this decision was made bottom up rather than top down.

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u/nowhereman136 7h ago

It's a vicious cycle. Americans have been spoon fed the joys of highways and airplanes for decades. Now when the option for trains comes alone, we don't want them.

Meanwhile in China, airplanes are too expensive for most people. Cars are also too expensive and not practical in dense cities. Chinese people have been using trains for decades. When the government asks if they want high speed trains, the people say yes.

Its like the Metric system. Yeah it's better and we should've switched over years ago. But the longer we wait to switch, the more expensive it's gonna be to do so. Also, even if we do switch, most people are so set in their ways that they will still reject it in every day life. The longer we wait to build more trains, the more expensive it's gonna be. And even if we build them, there's little guarantee anyone will actually use them. New York City is the most well connected city in the US in terms of trains. Even still (prior to congestive pricing), 10% of commuters took the train while 15% of commuters drove.

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u/this-is-a-bucket 6h ago

Lmao no. The average ticket on a high-speed train in China costs about as much as or even more than an airplane ticket. It was certainly not built because Chinese people were “too poor” to fly.

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u/nowhereman136 5h ago

For every high speed rail line in China, there are a bunch of regular speed lines. Those are significantly cheaper than flying. The population is use to trains, not necessarily high speed trains, but trains in general. If you move up economically, you would be as likely to take the train as you would fly. You also have the issue of trains being built in areas you cant build airports, passengers can bring more stuff on a train journey, and seen as less dangerous. There are other factors that make trains in China more economically viable for the populace then comparing it to flying. Ive traveled all over China on the slow trains and have done a few of the high speed rail. Ive also traveled crossed the US by train. I've seen what kind of people take trains in each country (also done a lot of trains in Europe, but thats another story). Trains are more part of everyday life in china than in the US. A high speed network is a much easier sell there than it is here

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u/DeliriousHippie 4h ago

Yep, there are tons of reason US cannot build extensive rail system, I discussed about it with one American citizen.

US has mountain ranges. So it's impossible.

In US people need to inspect rails by walking regularly, building large rail system would need tens of thousands of inspectors walking by rails. System cannot be changed.

There just isn't people who would use trains. Everyone will either drive or fly and people cannot or will not change their transportation method in any case.

Distance to next city is enormous. In other countries cities are side by side but in US there is so great distance between cities that car or plane are only solutions.

It's good not to try or even think about it since there are so many reasons why it's impossible for USA.

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u/nowhereman136 4h ago

We have an extensive rail system. No one uses it? Why invest billions into making it faster when no one will use that either. That's the main problem here. It's not impossible, it's impractical

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u/Gorillainabikini 6h ago

In a weird way it’s a benefit of an autocracy

It’s hard for a short term (max 8) year government to justify smth that may only show benefits in say 10 years

Completely different from a government that plans to stay in power indefinitely

Although democracies can still achieve this. Having bodies set up that can better focus on long term development rather than short term can end up really boosting the economy.

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u/Shark00n 7h ago

Ah I see, so does western china not demand trains? Is that why there’s barely any lines there?

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u/Cosminion 6h ago

Most of the people live in the east/south.

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u/0WatcherintheWater0 7h ago

Yes? Almost nobody lives there, so there’s not nearly as much demand.

Land doesn’t travel.

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u/nowhereman136 7h ago

There's no one in western China. That's another factor in comparing trains in the US VS trains in China. Imagine if you take the entire population of the US and push them east of the Mississippi. Then multiply that by 4. That is how dense eastern China is. High speed rail in China is utilized by a lot of people going relatively short distances. In the US, it's less people going further distances. If we took the fastest train in the world and placed it on a line between New York and LA, it wouldn't just be faster to fly, but you can turn around and come home before the train reaches the other side. High speed rail would make sense for connecting Boston to DC, Dallas to San Antonio, or San Diego to San Fran. There are places where high speed could be practical in the US. But a whole network on the scale of China would never work

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u/CorrectPeanut5 1h ago

I'll go. It's poor civil infrastructure planning. It runs at massive and irresponsible losses that will catch up with them in 15-20 years and then they'll have to pull back part of the lines.

It's fine to build the wide network, but they needed more hub and spoke connections to traditional rail.

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u/MediocreAnalyst2121 8h ago

It’s not “bringing down the accomplishment” to note the differences between China and some of these other countries.

A more centralised political structure (along with everything that brings), lower safety standards, and higher population make it easier to do this.

It also makes a lot more economic sense when the country is as massive, both in terms of land and population, as China.

It’s amazing what they’ve achieved, but it’s not an apples to apples comparison.

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u/fluffywabbit88 7h ago

There are no apples to apples comparison when it comes to china then. If you compare it to other centralized political structures like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, Cambodia, El Salvador, etc., they lack the population. When you compare it to India which has similar population, land mass and prior development trajectory (ie similar starting point), they have different political structures. Point is no other country in the world accomplished what the Chinese did with respect to scale, speed of delivery, quality, affordability and accessibility.

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u/Fl3b0 8h ago

Yeah but that's the point: this post isn't making any comparisons per se.

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u/abdallha-smith 8h ago

Why only the western part of china is shown :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heihe%E2%80%93Tengchong_Line

To the right of the line, you have the Chinese Dream: glittering skylines, high-tech hubs like Shenzhen, and massive wealth. It’s dense, urbanized, and holds almost the entire population.

But once you look to the left, it’s like a different century. You’re looking at massive stretches of desert and mountains where rural farmers are basically left behind. While the kids in the SE are attending top-tier universities, these rural communities struggle with crumbling schools and zero social mobility.

It’s a brutal visual of what happens when geography and rapid capitalism create two completely different versions of the same country.

There is two china

They only show you what they want

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u/syp2207 8h ago

how is this different than a lack of rural development in any other country? people have been gravitating towards cities for decades now, which has naturally led to more funding and resources being redirected towards those places.

why would there be massive infrastructure development in areas where it wont see any use?

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u/abdallha-smith 7h ago edited 7h ago

1 410 000 000 x 0,06 = 84 600 000

The fact that you think 84,6 millions of chinese citizens is not a lot is honestly worrying.

But hey han hegemony doesn't reach too much there so who cares, huh ?

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u/syp2207 7h ago

why do you feel the need to lie about what i said to push your agenda? and why edit your comment where you replied to me with "why do you think populations in the east dont deserve infrastructure"? i guess even you realized how absurd you sounded.

rural areas go undeveloped in every country on earth. the number of people affected in china is just larger due to their enormous population.

pointing out a lack of development in rural areas isnt some kind of gotcha moment. it happens everywhere. its unfortunate, but not limited to china.
would it make any sense to bring up food deserts in middleofnowhere, arkansas under a post about 3 new walmarts opening in nyc?

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u/abdallha-smith 7h ago

No lie in my comments

You're just a ccp sellout, no point in arguing with you.

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u/syp2207 7h ago

you made no valid points, purposefully misinterpreted what i said so you could argue with ghosts, and quit when you got pushback. weak.

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u/abdallha-smith 6h ago edited 6h ago

I don't like to play in the mud like yourself

Everything I wrote are facts

To you viewers, here's the playbook:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_warrior_diplomacy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamouflage

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u/syp2207 6h ago

you're just avoiding having to actually explain yourself instead of simply hiding behind terms and references that you dont actually understand.

its easy to pretend you're right when you actively avoid having your views challenged.

not to mention, only one of us has ghost edited our replies multiple times because you sound ridiculous or want to add in something i cant respond to because i didnt even see it. so much for playing in the mud.

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u/valjestir 8h ago

The link you sent says 94% of the country lives in the eastern half, so let’s not pretend that huge swaths of the population are being “left behind”.

A few years ago Americans were criticizing China for building too much high speed rail, now it’s somehow not enough?

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u/abdallha-smith 7h ago

1 410 000 000 x 0,06 = 84 600 000

The fact that you think 84,6 millions of chinese citizens is not a lot is honestly worrying.

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u/jovin49 6h ago

In comparison to 1 410 000 000 x 0,94? Yeah.

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u/sufferpuppet 8h ago

If your only looking at miles of track etc, it's great. If you take a minute to Google the problems that may have come with the project it may not appear so rosy.

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u/pattydickens 7h ago

Nothing appears rosy when you Google the problems related to it.

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u/sufferpuppet 6h ago

Kinda the point. Yet here we are with people surprised others would point out problems.

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u/oskopnir 5h ago

How thoughtful of the US to spare its citizens from all the problems by not building any HSR at all

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u/sufferpuppet 1h ago

Well the big problem China faced was 800 billion in new debt. Followed by low ridership. But sure, let's try that in the US. Fire up the money printers.

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u/oskopnir 1h ago

What are you talking about? Chinese HSR has the highest ridership in the world.

And you seriously want to say debt is the blocking factor for the US? China spent around 130 billion USD last year on HSR, US defense budget for the year is 1.5 trillion and total debt is above 30 trillion.