Great article - articulating lot of interesting points.
You said - `generally food is grown a lot closer to population centers`. Do you think if China had a better freight transportation network, it would open up opportunities for farther away provinces to grow and export food?
At this point the export of food within the country is not limited by its freight network. It has a developed cold chain, logistics and warehouse network with nationwide fresh food chains like FreshHippo (Alibaba Group) that have established logistics and can distribute food sourced from all over the country and world.
And China is never going to be a major bulk commodities exporter like the United States or Brazil which is really what you need bulk freight to ship commodities long distances to transportation hubs.
To me the more significant future trend is with vertical farming (https://twitter.com/GlennLuk/status/1769720683666248014) which can leverage technology to grow a wide variety of foods locally in year-round climate-controlled greenhouses. In the long run this could obviate the need to produce specialty crops in one location in export it thousands of miles to find end demand.
Good article Glenn, I agree with yr views on HSR. I’ve used it a fair amount and seen its growth - as someone involved in aviation in China, HSR is the only way to meet the size of the market for travel in China. ( small point, Isn’t “white elephant” the related expression to “grey rhino” you,re looking for in your opening para. .?)
I respond to unmentioned tangents of China’s high speed rail
The first tangent is pride. China was due for some. Sitting in a train station built to match any airport, I watched the next train crew going single file to their train, clearly imitating flight attendants and cockpit crew on an international flight. I remember when Chinese were overwhelmed with shame over poverty and backwardness. I felt joy for that sharply dressed train crew.
The second tangent is nostalgia. I’m entitled to some. I remember train rides lasting days. Even the train from Zibo to BeiJing took six hours. In the hard sleepers, people had time to get to know each other. Passengers gravitated toward cubicles where there were interesting discussions.
It was like Speakers Corner in London. We, the passengers debated topics we would not touch outside the train. I debated a plainclothes policeman how best to deal with Taiwan. There were heated debates over the One Child Policy and handling inflation.
Passengers could shop for cubicles debating topics more to their interests.
We spent long hours together and we met new friends.
Now? High speed rail il like an international flight, a fast moving tube filled with strangers. How can anyone tell what China’s people are thinking without those thousands of nightly free speech zones?
Found this post via Sinobabble. I was wondering what the implications of HSR is for movement of perishable produce in competition with airfreight, and if some of those underused lines might be able to move produce, etc?
They have experimented with some rapid e-commerce logistics only. One of the core HSR debates in the early 2000s was whether it should be a passenger-dedicated or hybrid px/freight line. With the exception of outliers like Lanxin, planners decided on passenger-dedicated.
Perishable goods would go via truck, conventional rail or air freight. Cold chain logistics and refrigeration are the more significant enabler here.
Great article - articulating lot of interesting points.
You said - `generally food is grown a lot closer to population centers`. Do you think if China had a better freight transportation network, it would open up opportunities for farther away provinces to grow and export food?
At this point the export of food within the country is not limited by its freight network. It has a developed cold chain, logistics and warehouse network with nationwide fresh food chains like FreshHippo (Alibaba Group) that have established logistics and can distribute food sourced from all over the country and world.
And China is never going to be a major bulk commodities exporter like the United States or Brazil which is really what you need bulk freight to ship commodities long distances to transportation hubs.
To me the more significant future trend is with vertical farming (https://twitter.com/GlennLuk/status/1769720683666248014) which can leverage technology to grow a wide variety of foods locally in year-round climate-controlled greenhouses. In the long run this could obviate the need to produce specialty crops in one location in export it thousands of miles to find end demand.
Fresh food logistics
Reminds me of Korean H Marts in Houston. They get fresh seafood from Korea via Korean Air
Appreciate the context and clarity here, as always!
Good article Glenn, I agree with yr views on HSR. I’ve used it a fair amount and seen its growth - as someone involved in aviation in China, HSR is the only way to meet the size of the market for travel in China. ( small point, Isn’t “white elephant” the related expression to “grey rhino” you,re looking for in your opening para. .?)
Thank you for this article
I respond to unmentioned tangents of China’s high speed rail
The first tangent is pride. China was due for some. Sitting in a train station built to match any airport, I watched the next train crew going single file to their train, clearly imitating flight attendants and cockpit crew on an international flight. I remember when Chinese were overwhelmed with shame over poverty and backwardness. I felt joy for that sharply dressed train crew.
The second tangent is nostalgia. I’m entitled to some. I remember train rides lasting days. Even the train from Zibo to BeiJing took six hours. In the hard sleepers, people had time to get to know each other. Passengers gravitated toward cubicles where there were interesting discussions.
It was like Speakers Corner in London. We, the passengers debated topics we would not touch outside the train. I debated a plainclothes policeman how best to deal with Taiwan. There were heated debates over the One Child Policy and handling inflation.
Passengers could shop for cubicles debating topics more to their interests.
We spent long hours together and we met new friends.
Now? High speed rail il like an international flight, a fast moving tube filled with strangers. How can anyone tell what China’s people are thinking without those thousands of nightly free speech zones?
Found this post via Sinobabble. I was wondering what the implications of HSR is for movement of perishable produce in competition with airfreight, and if some of those underused lines might be able to move produce, etc?
They have experimented with some rapid e-commerce logistics only. One of the core HSR debates in the early 2000s was whether it should be a passenger-dedicated or hybrid px/freight line. With the exception of outliers like Lanxin, planners decided on passenger-dedicated.
Perishable goods would go via truck, conventional rail or air freight. Cold chain logistics and refrigeration are the more significant enabler here.
Thank you for the detailed reply.