David’s first metro trip was in Beijing, on the Beijing Subway in the late 1980s, shortly departing the Chinese capital for Switzerland. However, his first national railway journey would be a Swiss one in 1989, followed by journeys by tram in Zürich starting in the early 1990s.
Trains were a key part of his journeys across his school years. Along with fellow classmates, he criss-crossed the rails of Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy, and Ireland throughout the 1990s. These included Classic trains, High Speed services, and Sleeper Cars, where it was only on an early 1998 journey he was made aware by fellow students he actually snored…
Due to slow, dilapidated and outdated rolling stock in China, David did not complete his first Chinese rail journey during this entire time. However, he was able to travel on the Metro systems of Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong upon his return to Beijing in 2000, as well as other Metro systems in London, Paris, Milan, and Berlin.
There were two first during this time: his first journey on inaugural ICN (Swiss tilting train) services on 28 May 2000, as well as travelling on the first “full run” Beijing Subway Line 1 train from Pingguoyuan to Sihui East (he only travelled for part of the trip) exactly one month later.