China, as one of the most important major economies worldwide, is home to one of the most expansive HSR networks. Rail is a genuinely viable alternative to flying in China. Bilingual services for the railways of China helps expats and visitors alike getting from A to B by rail in China.
Bilingual Info at Stations and on Trains
It is a long-term goal of all railway bilingual and international projects that the entire national rail system is made bilingual, just as more and more of China continues to open up to the outside world.
Travellers from abroad are “tricky”: most prefer to travel around unaided and without a tour group, so this means any station anywhere must be ready to “face” international passengers — even smaller stations in the countryside.
To deal with this, David intends to introduce bilingual info at stations and on trains on a nationwide level, starting first with a few posts of local or national significance. The ultimate goal is to make use of the Everyday Rail English Unified Bilingual Database to serve the travelling public across China, be they locals or incoming guests.
Bilingual Travel Info on Social Media
To further improve the usability and relevance of Chinese railway information to passengers from China and abroad, on the basis of the Everyday Rail English posts on Weibo, David launched in the second half of 2013 the Bilingual Travel Info guides on social media, after successful trials in the earlier half of 2013. (Due to change in regulation, Sina Weibo content was removed in late 2021.)
These are designed to help passengers travelling around China by train. As they are bilingual, they can also come to the assistance of first-time local Chinese train passengers. The way they are presented as “Long Weibo” content makes them popular and highly suitable to smartphones such as the Apple iPhone.
Reformatted in a way that is visually appealing, easy to read, and features content clearly and concisely, these bilingual travel info posts have been extremely popular with the travelling public, used by millions. They have been reposted across the Web, even by the official Chinese Railways Weibo account, as well as by many regional rail entities including those in Beijing and Ji’nan.
Bilingual Rail Travel Info content have even made appearances on Chinese Central Television, during the Spring Festival peak travel period, when it was used to introduce recommended bus routes between the three main rail hubs in Wuhan, central China.
Shown as part of Bilingual Travel Info are train information, connections to city metro systems, basic travel advice, sudden changes to the timetable, ticketing information, e-ticket availability, and much more.