David and wife Tracy welcomed a new addition this year to the family, however their child’s first train trip would be around two years later. Still, daddy was out the house more often than not – in particular travelling by train across the border to Hong Kong for three times in the first half of 2019, to get the family “that something special” from the city across the border.
Out of consideration for his personal safety, David decided not to cross the border into Hong Kong in late August 2019, whilst the riotous protests were in full swing, and instead asked a friend to buy him a few things beforehand, and discovering together quite a number of little-known intercity stations between Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Huizhou. His favourites? Xihu East railway station, which had station entrances designed like pavilions and pagodas in a traditional Chinese garden!
In September 2019, David was tasked to both teach onboard staff on the soon to be opened Beijing-Zhangjiakou HSR, and to also do his part to standardise rail English for the upcoming Winter Olympics. On 30 December 2019, that very line opened, but David wasn’t on the very first train, as he had a mission to accomplish — to both complete his trek to visit all Beijing Subway stations and to travel on the new HSR line the same day!
Little did he know that, a day later, the central Chinese city of Wuhan would admit the presence of a hitherto novel coronavirus now known as SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 – and that that virus would turn the entire world upside down merely weeks into the new decade…
2019 Travelogue
National/Territorial railway networks
China mainland: Nationwide with a focus on Beijing, Tianjin, Eastern and Southern China; other cities included Qiandaohu and Qufu
Hong Kong: by High Speed
Urban rail/Metro/Tram networks
China mainland: Beijing Subway, Tianjin Metro
Hong Kong: MTR