Fun fact#221
China's high-speed rail is the longest
China has built more high-speed track than the rest of the world combined, linking most major cities at 300 km/h.
China
More high-speed rail than the rest of the world combined, and one time zone from end to end.
10 entries · 5 stories, 5 fun facts
China at a glance
The practical numbers, before the stories.
- Capital
- Beijing
- Currency
- Renminbi / yuan (CNY)
- Official language
- Standard Mandarin
- Climate
- Subarctic in the northeast, subtropical in the south, arid in the west. Huge seasonal range.
- Best time to go
- April–May and September–October
- Time zone
- UTC+8 for the entire country
- Driving side
- Right
- Plugs and voltage
- Type A / C / I, 220 V
Worth knowing: One time zone across a span that would naturally hold five: the sun rises after 10 am in western Xinjiang.
Planning a trip to China
The decisions that determine whether the trip works, whichever country you are going to.
China has laid more high-speed track than every other country put together, linking most major cities at 300 km/h. It also runs the entire country on Beijing time, which means the sun rises after ten in the morning in western Xinjiang.
The Great Wall is not one wall but a network built by different dynasties across 2,000 years, and long stretches are rammed earth rather than stone. The entries here also cover the terracotta army that was originally painted in bright colours, the airport maglev that covers 30 kilometres in seven and a half minutes, and the flooded rice terraces that turn a mountainside into a mirror for a few weeks each February.
Entries from China
Fun fact#223
The Great Wall is not one wall
The Great Wall is a network of walls built by different dynasties over 2,000 years, and long stretches are earth rather than stone.
Fun fact#225
China uses one time zone
Despite spanning the width of five, all of China officially runs on Beijing time, so the sun rises after 10 am in western Xinjiang.
Fun fact#227
Shanghai's maglev hits 431 km/h
The airport maglev covers 30 kilometres in about seven and a half minutes without touching the track.
Fun fact#229
Terracotta soldiers were once painted
The 8,000 terracotta warriors were originally brightly coloured. Most pigment flakes away within minutes of exposure to dry air.
Story#376
Hutong hospitality
We took a wrong turn into a courtyard and were handed sunflower seeds by three grandmothers who wanted to know our ages and marital status in that order.
Story#380
On the wall at dawn
We started at five to be alone. For two hours the only people on that section of wall were us and a woman selling water who had walked up ahead of us and was not out of breath.
Story#384
The overnight sleeper to Xi'an
Six bunks, thermos flasks of hot water, and a card game we did not understand but were dealt into anyway. By morning we had lost imaginary money and gained four contacts.
Story#386
Tea horse road
The old caravan route is a hiking trail now. In one village a man was still pressing tea into cakes by hand with a stone and a cloth, exactly as the museum described.
Story#390
Rice terraces at flooding
In February the terraces fill with water and the whole mountainside becomes a mirror in fifteen hundred pieces. Then the rice grows and it is just a hillside again.
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