World’s Fastest Bullet Train Links Beijing-Shanghai

China is planning to produce the world’s fastest bullet train to link Beijing to Shanghai.

Why not? China wants the oldest, biggest, smallest, newest everything else.

The train will run 380 kph (236 mph) and will be developed domestically. China wanted to run the trains at 350 kph on the 1,318 km  (820 mile) route and make the trip in 5 hours, about half what it is now. So, what’s an extra 30 kph?

China reckons it already has the technology….bought/borrowed and stolen from France, Japan, Canada and Germany. The Middle Kingdom hopes to build some 50 trains a year and have the infrastructure in place to support it by 2012.

China already runs a bullet train from Tianjin to Beijing.

So, um, why take a train when you can fly? I don’t get it. In Japan, the Niigata-Tokyo air route was canceled because it was faster to go by train. Not so from Shanghai-Beijing.

What are these people thinking?