Driving private cars, more city dwellers are enjoying taking family and friends to South China seaside resorts during this Chinese Spring Festival holiday season.
It's a great feeling to go on self-drive tours. You have the freedom to stop by at any place as long as you wish, and you will never waste time browsing in those jewelry shops just following your tour guide.
The self-driving craze comes despite the pressure of soaring oil prices, as modern Chinese city dwellers pursue an alternative and novel fashion of pastime to ease their increasingly intense work stress.
人力车胡同游 Hutong Tour
For those who want to discover the traditional Chinese life, a jaunt down the intricate maze of Beijing's hutongs is essential. Organized tours of Beijing hutongs are available. You will be taken by pedicab (a tricycle cab), which was very popular in the old days, to visit the Bell and Drum Towers, Prince Gong's Mansion and even pay a visit to an ordinary Beijing family in the compound houses. If sightseeing at the Imperial Palace, Ming Tombs and the Summer Palace is helpful in learning about the lives of China's emperors, the hutongs of Beijing reflect in turn the history of Beijing as a whole.
磁悬浮列车 Maglev Train
A maglev train floats about 10mm above the guideway on a magnetic field. By changing magnetic fields, it is propelled by the guideway itself rather than an onboard engine. Once the train is pulled into the next section the magnet switches so that the train is pulled on again. The Electro-magnets run the length of the guideway.
The train does offer certain benefits over conventional steel rail on steel wheel railways. The primary advantage is maintenance. Because the train floats along, there is no contact with the ground and therefore no need for any moving parts. As a result there are no components that will wear out. In theory this means the trains and the track would need no maintenance at all.
The second advantage is that because maglev trains float, there is no friction. Note that there will still be air resistance.
A third advantage is that, because there are no wheels running along, there is no wheel noise. However noise due to air disturbance still occurs.
The final advantage is increased speed. Due to the three previous advantages listed, it is more viable for maglev trains to travel extremely fast.
城际快车 Inter-city Express
The Inter City Express (ICE) project started in the 1980s and the first ICE was the inter-city experimental, which gained a speed record over 400km/h, this held the world speed record for a train for a short period. Since 1991 the ICE has been a high-speed train for Germany. Althouth it is not quite as fast as the TGV (Train Grande Vitesse) , it still reached speeds of 174mph.
The 2nd generation started in 1996, with the same top speed but an improved design. Most ICE services run on existing conventional railway lines, where they can cruise at a maximum of 200km/h or 125mph. However this is dependent on how curved the line is.
Traveling on ICE is a very luxurious method of high speed train travel. There are places to hang up coats, legroom is plentiful and the train ride is very comfortable. Seating can be reserved, or you arrive and buy the ticket on the same day.
法国高速列车 High-speed Rail
The TGV (Train Grande Vitesse) is a French high speed train. There are many significant differences among the 350-odd TGV trains in service today. The name TGV refers to much more than just the trains; the TGV is a system which comprises train, track, and signalling technologies, that when combined make high speeds (typically 300 km/h, or 186 mph) possible.
The TGV system is owned and operated by SNCF, the French national railways, and is an integral part of French rail travel. SNCF's idea for the TGV was to develop a high speed rail system that remained compatible with the existing railway infrastructure. This had the important benefit of allowing high speed trains to use existing facilities in the heart of many cities，where building any tracks or stations would be prohibitively expensive.Another advantage was the possibility of running TGV trains to many destinations on existing trackage. Finally, having a high speed rail system that is fully integrated into the existing rail network makes it possible to gradually build new high speed lines, and open them section by section.
