A few tips
The growth of a nation is directly proportional to its ease of connectivity and communication, which applies to both travel and telecom. India suffered extensively with very poor connectivity in the telecom sector until the cross-bar exchanges arrived in India. The growth after that, keeping in pace and changes taking place around the world discarded cyclostyle, telegram, faxes and to an extent our reliability on poor landline connections. India today can boast of one of the fastest growing markets for mobile telephony, but the data speeds are a bother.
It’s not strange for extensive use of smartphones in China, which is its largest manufacturer in the world. However, lack of proficiency in English has kept it as an also-ran in the speedy race of services sector, which India dominates.
Moving on to travelling, China has genuinely graduated in the last decade, with an excellent spread of speedy bullet trains, often logging speeds more than 300 km./hr, semi-fast as well as ordinary ones. I utilised the bullet trains to criss-cross China many times, the decently attired cabin attendants maintaining a high standard of cleanliness and offering a variety of savouries. Seats can be reserved online, and stations demand an ID and ticket to enter, like in our airports. It seems that China is taking a leaf out of Japan’s book concerning punctuality and cleanliness.
Air-travel could be two types. The international ones and the domestic, manned by the many Chinese national carriers. Food is of poor quality and service not to international standards, though my experience is limited to India-China sector. The domestic flights are usually always full and noisy as ours. Loud announcements keep on and on feverishly shouting that it is the last and final call, as fliers’ rush in one and twos.
The roads are full of oversized Chinese cars sharing space with Honda, Toyota and Kia as well as European and American models. One often needs to go close to realise that the perceived Bentley could be ‘Geely,’ a Chinese clone, a tenth of the cost with the mascot of the flying lady. Similar twins of Benz, VW do not raise any eyebrows. A tweak in the spelling could absolve from IPR strictures, even if it the name is deceptively identical to originals.
China makes its trains, planes, subway system, ships, tanks, trucks – large cross-country hauliers, tractors, e-tricycles, hovercraft, tugs and every other conceivable mode of transport, which keeps their billion speedily moving. The secret is laying wide roads, often 100/120 feet wide, to take care of the present and the future traffic load, which are devoid of encroaching shops and residences or jaywalkers anywhere in the vicinity. I saw no hawkers blocking pavement anywhere in their country, and all pavements were disabled friendly.
I guess we can borrow a few ideas, while we are in the process of growth.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide voix