{"id":94901,"date":"2026-10-22T17:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94901"},"modified":"2026-10-22T17:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:00:09","slug":"making-tracks-through-chinas-past-and-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94901","title":{"rendered":"Making tracks through China\u2019s past and present"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\u201cPeking wore the green lace of spring, its thousands of willows and imperial cypresses making the Forbidden City a place of wonder and enchantment,\u201d American journalist Edgar Snow wrote of Beijing in 1936.<\/p>\n

Ninety years later, strolling before the vermillion ramparts of the Forbidden City, it\u2019s clear that Beijing\u2019s mass conversion to electric vehicles has rendered the city not only cleaner than it has been of late, but also quieter \u2013 allowing Zhongshan Park to bloom much as Snow described.<\/p>\n

Snow\u2019s description was included in his wartime account of a journey to Yanan, Red Star Over China<\/em> (first published in 1937), his destination then being the base of the Chinese Communist Party. But the city has made headlines much more recently, with the December opening of the Xian-Yanan high-speed railway taking the length of China Railway\u2019s operational network past the 50,000km (31,070 miles) mark.<\/p>\n

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A high-speed train passes through golden wheat fields at the foot of Mount Hua, in Shaanxi province, in June. Photo: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It took Snow more than two days to cover the 1,000km (621 miles) from Beijing to Xian by rail, but China\u2019s 21st century public transport will make my own pilgrimage to Yanan, with some history-imbued detours along the way, far smoother.<\/p>\n

With tickets bought online, I set my sights first on Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, located on the upper reaches of the Yellow River and 400km (249 miles) to the south of Beijing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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