A new high-speed train, known as the bullet train, will be running between Beijing and Tianjin starting October 18.
The bullet train is designed to run at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, and at an experimental speed that even surpasses that. But passengers will not spend less time traveling between the two municipalities with a distance of 135 kilometers. It will take them about 79 minutes to arrive at the destination.
The bullet train will have to slow down its speed when making turns or running on a railway with one or more trains on it at the same time.
Passengers will feel more comfortable sitting on chairs designed after airplane seats.
The bullet train is equipped, for the first time in China, with shatterproof glass to avoid the glass from possibly breaking to the train's high speed. The lavatory on the train is installed with imported equipment to collecting waste so as to avoid pollution along the rails.
The new bullet train can carry 1,412 passengers. The shuttle trains between Beijing and Tianjin will stay at 10 round-trips everyday.
(Eastday. com 10/15/2000)
