中国高铁真的很先进吗？（一）外国网友大讨论：规模是优势！ [美国媒体]

Question：How advanced are Chinese high-speed rail trains?

问题：中国高铁有多先进？

Answered by Robin Daverman（upvote|3.3k）：

罗宾•达韦尔曼的回答：

The Chinese high-speed rails have a quality all on its own, because it’s so massive. There are more than twice as many high-speed trains in China as the rest of the world combined. The picture below is an early morning photo at the train station of a second-tier city in China.

中国高铁之所以有如此高的质量完全是因为中国高铁本身的体量，因为中国高铁系统太庞大了。中国高铁的数量比世界其他国家高铁总数的两倍还要多。下面的图片展示了中国一个二线城市的火车站清晨的图景。





Tier 1 cities like Beijing have a couple hundred high-speed trains stopping at the city every day.

一线城市比如北京每天有两百多列高铁停靠。





And the Chinese Spring Festival is just a mad house - an estimated 3 billion person/trips take place within a 2-week window. It would be the equivalent of every American taking 10 trips during Christmas, or every European taking 5 trips during Christmas. All the train tickets are gone within like 10 seconds after they become available.

中国春节期间简直就是车如流水马如龙，据估计在春节期间两周的窗口期内共发送旅客30亿人次。这相当于所有美国人在圣诞节期间每人搭乘10趟火车，或者相当于所有欧洲人在圣诞节期间每人搭乘5趟火车。春节期间所有的火车票在开售10分钟内就全部被抢完。



The Chinese high-speed rail system made 1.5 billion trips last year, growing 30% a year. It’s just absolutely massive!

中国高铁系统去年发送旅客15亿人次，一年之内增长30%。这规模简直就是丧心病狂的庞大！


Lei Sun：
The fact that this 3 billion person/trips can happen in 2 weeks in the first place demonstrates the infrastructure is some human wonder. In my adopted home country Sweden with less than 10 million people, due to poor management and evasion of responsibility etc, as soon as it snows a little bit trains get cancelled or delayed for hours. I once had to travel 3 hours by train to the airport, the train came 3 hours too late and I almost missed my flight! Our minister of transportation once outrageously claimed “people can celebrate Christmas another day”! This will never happen in China. No Chinese official dares to utter these words. Why the elected officials of a “democratic” country take less responsibility towards the public than officials of a “dictator” country is beyond normal people’s comprehension.

首先，光“在春节期间两周的窗口期内共发送旅客30亿人次”这一点上，就证明了中国的基础设施在某种程度上简直就是人类奇迹。在我的第二故乡瑞典，人口不到一千万，由于管理不善和逃避责任等等问题，一到刚下了一点儿小雪的时候，火车就取消或者推迟几个小时。我曾经有一次坐了3个小时火车才赶到机场，最后火车还是晚到了3个小时之久，让我差点没赶上航班！我们的交通部长曾经有一次极其离谱地讲“人们可以改一天再庆祝圣诞节”！这种事情绝不可能发生在中国。没有一个中国政府官员敢说出这样的话。为什么在一个“民主”国家里，一群被选举出来的官员，对公众如此不负责任，比起一个“独菜”国家的官员都不如，这完全超出了一个正常人能理解的范围。

Yifan Zhou：
When a democratically elected leadership make mistakes - it's the people's fault, so let's vote for someone else next time.
When the CCP makes mistakes - CCP is responsible for everything bad happens. If they keep doing a bad job, anger builds up over time and would one day crush the ruling party. It's vital for a dictator to always keep the people satisfied, sometimes even more so than in a democracy.

当一个民主选举出来的领导层犯错误时 -- 这是群众的失误，所以民众可以下次再选别人。
当土共犯错误时 -- 土共要为所有的不良后果负责。如果土共一再工作做得不好，愤怒会随着时间累积，并最终有一天会压垮执政党。所以，对于一个“独菜”国家来说，让民众一直持续感到满意是攸关生死的，在某种程度上，这一点对于土共要比它对于一个“民主”国家来说更加重要。

Nishi Kaanti Dasgupta：
meritocracy is better than democracy.

精英政治比民主政治要好。

Fred Gan：
China is definitely not a democratic country but also not ruling under a dictature system. actually, this country executes by meritocracy at all levels. these political leaders are, of course not elected by its people but also not nominated by leaders. To become an official in the bureaucracy, those candidates get to pass several examinations and interviews, most eliminated in the process and only 3–5% may get offers. All government employees will be scored based on their performance at the end of year

中国确实不是一个民主国家，但是同时也不是一个独菜体制统治之下的国家。实际上，这个国家在各个层面上实行精英体制。这些政治领导层当然不是由民众直接选举出来的，但是也不是由领导层直接任命的。要成为官僚体系中的一员，这些申请人必须通过几轮笔试和面试，在这个过程中，只有3%到5%的最优秀的人在可以进入体制。所有的政府雇员在年终都必须基于他们的表现进行考核。

Ryed Jadun ：
I feel like the infrastructure was created by need. Not sure about the need in Sweden, but if the growth in public transportation does not supplement the need of it, then there really is no point in creating so much. However, it’s also true that if the public transportation becomes so advanced that there is no more need for cars anyway, more people will opt for the public transportation in the first place.

我感觉基础设施是由需求创造出来的。而在瑞典这种需求不明确，但是如果公共交通的增长没有相对应的需求，那么建造如此多的基础设施就毫无意义了。然而，同样有道理的是，如果公共交通变得非常先进，以致于人们不再对汽车有更多的需求，那么更多的人们就会首选公共交通了。

Leo Xie：
Actually, in most cases, things are not created by need. We didn’t really need iPhones. We didn’t really need Facebook. We didn’t even need the internet 30 years ago.
Swedish people might not need high-speed trains. However, would they love to travel faster and more comfortable? I guess most of them would say YES!

实际上，在大多数情况下，很多事情不都是由需求创造出来的。我们过去并没有对iPhone的需求，我们过去也没有对Facebook的需求，我们在30年前甚至都没有对互联网的需求。
瑞典人可能没有对高铁的需求。然而，难道他们不喜欢更快更舒适的旅行吗？我猜他们当中大多数人会说：“喜欢”！

Ryed Jadun：
You have a good point, but I feel the comparison is not very good. iPhones and internet were first created as an advancement, and advancements/novelties usually sell based on popularity, and they’re created by a corporation, so they’d want to sell it whether it’s needed or not. Trains and stuff are more state/city based, so there’s more supplied for a larger demand, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth it to create so many with such fast pace if no one is really using them.
That’s just my TRAIN of thought. 

你说得有道理，但是我觉得你的打的比喻不恰当。iPhone和互联网一开始是被作为前卫产品被创造出来的，前卫产品或者新奇的事物通常是基于受大众欢迎程度来售卖的，它们是由公司创造的，所以无论是不是有这个需求，公司都会努力去售卖。火车更多是基于国家或城市的，所以只有需求越大，才会供给越大。否则如果没人用的话，以再快速的步伐创造再多，也是不值得的。

Ibrahim Ahmed：
lool are you saying china is better than sweden? hahaha man it surprises me how many chinese there are on quora to upvote you

真滑稽。你是在说中国比瑞典好吗？哈哈哈，哥们儿，我倒是要看看这个网站上有多少中国人支持你。

Gabriel Chan：
That tier two city is Wuhan, Hubei.

这个二线城市是湖北武汉。

Athanos Lee：
But Wuhan is a transportation hub. Robin should choose a more typical second-tier city like Kunming or Yinchuan. Otherwise it would simply be misleading.

但是武汉是一个交通枢纽。罗宾你应该选择一个更加典型的二线城市比如昆明或者银川来示例。否则将会误导读者。

Lei Sun：
I lived a few years in Basel, Switzerland, also a very sizable transportation hub in Europe. And it looks nowhere close to this picture from Wuhan.

我在瑞士巴塞尔（瑞士西北部城市，在莱茵河畔）住过几年，同样是一个相当大的交通枢纽。但是它在哪一个方面看起来都比不上图片上的武汉。

Delio Mugnolo：
Wuhan’s population is 30 times as large as Basel’s.

武汉的人口是巴塞尔的30倍。

Lei Sun：
Most of Basel’s train traffic is international, the city stands on the border of France, Germany and Switzerland. So population size of Basel itself is not very relevant here.

大部分的巴塞尔火车交通都是国际性的，这个城市位于法国、德国和瑞士三国交界的地方，所以在这儿谈巴塞尔的人口规模是不相关的。

Andrew Wong：
How about Chengdu? I was very impressed with their High Speed Rail station.

成都怎么样？我对他们的高铁站印象非常深刻。

Hal Xu：
These two u have mentioned are definetly third tier

你提到的两个城市无疑都属于三线城市。

Alexander.Jin：
But I dont think Kunming and Yinchuan are second-tier cities.

但是我不认为昆明和银川是二线城市。

Fred Weems：
The high speed train system in and out of Xi’an is absolutely first class. If there’s a train option I’ll take that over flying. The scenery is fantastic from ground level. 

进出西安的高铁绝对是一流的。如果可以选择坐高铁，我绝不坐飞机。沿途的地貌风景简直太奇妙了。

Magnus Reynhamar：
Xi'an is just almost outer worldly beautiful to me.

西安对我来说就像是世外桃源。

Victor Gan：
Kunming and Yinchuan are fourth tier cities in China!

昆明和银川在中国属于四线城市！

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Jo Michie：
The Chinese High Speed Rail-system is awesome in the true meaning of the word. It is opening the far west and the interior of China and will bring prosperity to areas previously cut-off from the economic growth of the eastern seaboard of the country.

中国高速铁路系统用一个词就可以表示真正的含义：awesome（太棒了）。它打开了偏远西部地区和内陆地区的大门，并将给这些地区带来繁荣，以往这些地区和东部沿海地区的经济增长脱节了。

It is my preferred method of traveling within China. The trains always leave on time despite weather conditions (unlike aircraft) and always arrive on time.

高铁是我在中国旅行的首选交通工具。列车总是准点出发，准点到达，不管怎样的天气状况（飞机就不一样了）。

Once on board the passengers are well cared for, the trains are well staffed and maintained. Toilets are clean, seats are comfortable, you can purchase snacks and drinks on board.

一旦坐上了列车，旅客们都能得到周到的照顾，车上工作人员配置齐全，列车保养良好。卫生间干净整洁，座位舒适，你还可以在列车上买到零食和饮料。

It is sometimes hard to realise just how fast the train is moving as it is so smooth (compared with trains in the UK). Announcements are given in both Mandarin and English.

有时候你很难搞懂，中国高铁是怎样做到运行得如此快速，但是却又如此的平稳（和英国的火车相比）。列车还会给出普通话和英语双语广播。

I really wish Britain would get its act together and invest in a proper high speed rail system linking Scotland, the North of England, the Midlands and the South West of England - it would bring immense benefits, and help reduce road traffic.

我真的希望英国能够一起行动起来，投资建设合适的高速铁路系统，连结苏格兰，英格兰北部、中部和英格兰西南部。这将会带来难以估量的利益，并且可以帮助缓解道路交通压力。

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Corey Tournet：
I don’t think the technology itself is any sort of breakthrough. The main breakthroughs are the extremely low cost of the tickets and the scale. Here in the USA we always try to make everything so expensive and complicated.

我不认为单从技术上来讲，中国高铁有什么大的技术突破......