On 01 January 2024, David Feng and family took a national railway train — the last such 01 January journey made was in 2018, signalling a definite return to normal.
That same day, David reset his train miles (however, also keeping his lifetime miles, and updating them from time to time), due to the fact that metro, tram, and other non-national rail forms of rail transport were not systematically counted beforehand.
He was actively travelling during the first post-Covid, post-mask-era Chunyun, or Spring Festival Peak Travel Season. Due to extensive rail-related engagements in Beijing, his mileage were limited until June, when he started travelling once again professionally — across China. That month, he clocked his longest rail miles since the pandemic.
Starting in May 2024, he gave talks about the railways roughly every month, the first longer-term effort since the pandemic. From June 2024, these involved extensive travel across China. Travel, however, was significantly curtailed after July 2024, due to unexpected health and financial hardships.
By invitation, his family travelled in December 2024 to Thailand to take a break after an exciting, but also very exhausting year. There, he travelled by rail around the north. Returning to China later, he travelled on the Changzhou Metro for the first time. He and his family travelled back to Beijing on 31 December 2024 on a sleeper train, the first time he had travelled on a train spanning two different calendar years.
2024 Travelogue
National/Territorial railway networks
China mainland: Baoding, Beijing, Changzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Hanzhong, Harbin, Kunshan, Shanghai, Shijiazhuang, Suzhou, Taiyuan, Tianjin, Wuhan, Xi’an, Xiongan, Xuzhou, Zhangjiakou (Chongli)
Thailand: Chiang Mai, Lam Phun
Urban rail/Metro/Tram networks
China mainland: Beijing Subway, Changzhou Metro, Chengdu Metro, Chongqing Metro, Harbin Metro, Shanghai Metro, Suzhou Metro, Taiyuan Metro, Tianjin Metro, Wuhan Metro