Does anybody have experience in China? I heard a lot that their train system is much better at this point. So, for example, the same distance will take almost two times less in China.
I found traveling by slow train or long distance bus much more pleasant in China because you can just walk in, buy a ticket to wherever and head out the same day. They take ages and there are all the usual delays, but the experience is much less stressful and more comparable to the train experience people from other countries might expect.
All that said, I'd still pick Chinese high speed rail over flying just for emissions reasons if nothing else.
For trips up to about 1500km I’ll favor the train because it’s just more comfortable — security checks are sane, no luggage check, and more leg room. Beijing to Shanghai could be faster by train or by plane depending on which airport you fly into, and where your destination is within the city.
Beijing to HK is a different story. The fastest trains to Shenzhen (right across from HK) are currently 7h50m, compared to a 3.5 hr flight. An overnight sleeper is a good option, especially if you have 3 friends to travel with.
Amusingly, China uses pieces of technology which were developed in Europe for its train system. Signalling is a good exemple (CTCS is basically ETCS). Europe is as usual deploying at a snail pace while China put it everywhere.
It was obvious from the start it would end up this way. China is an actual country while Europe is a loose collection of countries which don’t really like each other supposedly spearheaded by Germany which actually only cares about pushing policies in its own interest and actively hinder anything else, and France which remains stuck thirty years in the past and is actively being sabotaged by most of the things the EU forces it to do regarding infrastructure (more true in energy than in rail that being said).
The discussion makes sense with China which is pushing forward quickly using new tech. The US is not even part of it.
Germany alone is also an actual country and the trains inside it's borders are super slow.
In China and Japan, many long distance trains get 320 km/h average speed!
The German ICE "machine" could theoretically also do that speed but there are barely any tracks where this is possible, so the average speed is around 3x slower.
In France and Italy it is much better. TGV and Frecciarossa trains usually operate much closer to their specced speeds.