The most expansive vaccination campaign in history kicked off in 2021, as parts of the world started to gradually reopen. However, China still doggedly stuck to its Zero Covid policies, hampering international travel, and placing more restrictions even on domestic railway travel.
In spite of the manifold travel rules and restrictions, David was able to double his rail miles for 2021, as a result of more relaxed rules especially in spring and early summer 2021. He completed the missing parts on the new High Speed railway line between Beijing to Harbin via Shenyang.
2021 also saw first rides on a number of recently-opened subway systems in China, including those in Hohhot, Ji’nan, and Ningbo, just to name a few. The long completed Hangzhou South Railway Station finally opened as a refreshed station, and David also took the train from there to the suburbs of the city. And, for the very first time since the start of the pandemic, he travelled on a train on the Beijing-Guangzhou HSR railway; on that route was Wuhan, the original epicentre of the first outbreak.
However, travel was severely restricted for much of August, and again starting from mid-November 2021, when newer and more restrictive Covid travel rules took affect, including more stringent rules on Covid testing and tougher rules for entry to Beijing from anywhere with even one Covid-positive case.
Nevertheless, the first miles on the national railway network was clocked by his son in early 2021, and the entire family joined on board staff around the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Beijing to Shanghai High Speed Railway, where David gave a brief talk from the train to look back at the past decade on one of the world’s busiest and fastest lines.
2021 Travelogue
National/Territorial railway networks
China mainland: Beijing, Fuxin, Hangzhou, Hohhot, Ji’nan, Langfang, Shaoxing, Tianjin, Ulanqab, Xilinhot, Zhangjiakou.
Urban rail/Metro/Tram networks
China mainland: Beijing Subway, Ji’nan Metro, Hangzhou Metro, Hohhot Metro, Shanghai Metro, Tianjin Metro