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In 2010, Thomas Bird was hired as a magazine editor in Shenzhen. As he worked on the news pages, he realised that he was living through the biggest railway-building boom in human history.Beginning with China’s first high-speed railway from Beijing to Tianjin in 2008, the country had -- by the time Bird left his job at the magazine in 2013 -- laid the world’s longest high-speed rail (HSR) network at around 10,000 km. By 2019, as the pandemic brought the curtain down on rail travel in China, the country boasted more dedicated HSR than the rest of world combined.
From 2014, Bird explored China Railways in depth, travelling the length and breadth of the People’s Republic while reporting for publications including South China Morning Post, DestinAsian magazine, Geographical magazine and others.
Encompassing the vastness and diversity of China (a country 40 times the size of the UK), travel on the “iron dragon” offered a particular lens through which to view the rapidly-changing nation. Bird’s experiences, on and off the rails, are documented in his travelogue “Harmony Express: Travels By Train Through China” (Earnshaw Books, 2023).
Harmony Express is a work of travel literature, reporting the stories of those Bird encountered on Chinese trains. On this evening, Bird and two other rail travel experts will also discuss other vital aspects of the rail adventure, including the impact of “railway imperialism” on China, a semi-colonial experience that informs the contemporary obsession with “catching-up” and the grander state-building project -- connecting the most disparate and disputed regions to one railway “grid” including Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
This is particularly relevant to Southeast Asia since the Laos–China railway opened in 2021 and the China-built Woosh! HSR train launched in Java in 2023. China’s “railway diplomacy,” the Belt and Road Initiative and designs for a Pan-Asian Network will likely accelerate, as great power competition heats up through the 2020s.
Speakers:
Thomas Bird, travel writer, long-form culture journalist and author of Harmony Express.
Richard Barrow, Thai travel and railway blogger, writer of online Thai travel guides and travel news for nearly 30 years.
Chris Cottrell, former China resident and veteran journalist in Asia.
Moderator: Gwen Robinson, past president, FCCT.
Members who wish to book in advance should email [email protected] or call the FCCT office on 02-652-0580.
Non-members can use this link: https://www.ticketmelon.com/fccthai/train-journeys-with-chinese-characteristics-from-green-trains-to-high-speed-rail
Members free, non-members 300 baht; Thai media and students with ID, 150 baht.
Bar and restaurant open.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand - FCCT, มาย ออฟฟิศ เอ-เพย์ ประเทศไทย, ถนน เพลินจิต, ปทุมวัน, กรุงเทพมหานคร, กรุงเทพมหานคร 10330, ประเทศไทย,Bangkok, Thailand
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