Riding the Shanghai Maglev at 267 miles per hour (431 km/hr)

By Wesley Fryer On November 8, 2009 · · 1 Comment

Last week for our last night in China, we rode the MagLev bullet train from the Pudong airport into downtown Shanghai. We could have taken a taxi ride for 45-60 minutes at a cost of about $50 US, but instead we paid the equivalant of about $7 US and took a 10 minute ride at 267 miles per hour on a train that never touched the track, thanks to the technology of applied electromagnetism. This 90 second video gives you a taste of the experience, when we topped out at maximum speed for this particular trip.

I’m not sure why, but the maximum speed of the train depends on the time you ride it.

Still images really don’t do this experience justice.

After getting off the Maglev, we got on the Shanghai subway and went to People’s Square.

From there we took a taxi to the Chenghuang Miao area for shopping.

Some of the other international presenters and participants at our conference had told us about this amazing bullet train, which they rode prior to the conference. I was delighted to be able to experience this firsthand. I’ve definitely never gone this fast in a train before! To learn more about this amazing technology, check out the WikiPedia articles for “Shanghai Maglev Train” and “Maglev (transport.)”

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