R AIL IN CHINA
predicted to have a top speed of 500km/h. Additionally, at the end of 2017 Chinese researchers announced their plans to develop a Hyperloop – as envisioned by Elon Musk in 2013 – that would be able to travel at 1,000km/h (three times the speed of sound), with research and testing currently under way in Guizhou.
TRACK RECORD How and why China has gone “From Laggard to Superpower” has been the central subject of a number of academic papers by Dr Chan – who is also the head of politics and international relations at the University of Auckland. First and foremost, developing infrastructure to
facilitate the country’s rapidly growing second- and third-tier cities, and ferry a burgeoning middle class, is seen as vital to continue fostering business connections and economic growth, particularly in revitalising the country’s poorer regions and provinces. Closely related is the much-hyped “One Belt One
Road” initiative, which has seen China pumping huge resources into improving infrastructure links with countries from Asia to Africa, to revive the old Silk Road and birth new trade routes. The aforementioned Lanzhou to Urumqi line is a perfect example: not only has this line connected a rural region of China’s vast land mass, but it has also helped to open a strategic gateway into neighbouring Kazakhstan and Central Asia – a major target of the One Belt One Road plan. The phenomenal transformation has been made
possible thanks to a combination of cheap resources (of both materials and labour) enhanced by mass scale economising – according to the World Bank, it costs China US$17-21 million per km of track, whereas in Europe that expense rises to US$25-39 million. Political
bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om
will and the benefits of absorbing established foreign technologies and huge investment have also contributed to this success story.
65
AIR DELAYS Of course, China’s aviation industry has also been growing rapidly, with new carriers, airports, aircraft and passenger numbers soaring. However, air travel is notoriously plagued by delays. In surveys by the likes of OAG and Flightstats, China’s
major hubs regularly come up trumps for tardiness. In the 2018 OAG Punctuality League, the on-time performance results of Beijing (63.5 per cent), Shenzhen (59.8 per cent) and Guangzhou (64.8 per cent) are indicative of the country-wide problem, particularly when compared to the world’s busiest airport, Chicago O’Hare, which scored a much more respectable 79.85 per cent. It’s fair to say most flyers in China are accustomed to automatically adding at least 30 minutes to the scheduled arrival time, while delays of up to 10 hours or total cancellations are far from unheard of. A large part of the problem, according to industry
experts, is that the military controls the majority of China’s airspace, with commercial aviation taking a back seat to the demands of military exercises. Increasingly congested airports, erratic weather patterns and stringent air traffic control safety regulations slowing down runway operations have also been cited as contributing factors. For any traveller, delays are inconvenient, but for
business travellers in particular, a delayed or cancelled flight could (and frequently does) result in missing a vital meeting, ruining onward travel plans, or having visas expiring – all of which can have severely disruptive consequences.
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