Thread by @JRUrbaneNetwork

When I arrived at Fenghuang (Via HSR of course) I was confronted with an ad that blew my mind. Fenghuang, a pretty obscure Chinese town, has a Maglev that connects it's center with its HSR station. So being the railway connoisseur I am, I had to take it. A🧵of my experience.

I turn left and enter the entrance to the maglev which is using too much words. Just say Fenghuang Maglev in Chinese and English, the visitor center is secondary. The tourist stuff is not important the transport to the tourism stuff is. This will be a reoccurring theme.

The maglev line itself is 10km long with 4 stations tho a number of sections have space reserved for infill stations.

Ticket wise it's quite expensive but there is a two way ticket you can get that covers you within 48hrs that 38 RMB. This is good as Fenghuang is generally a 1-2 day tourist affair so it would work for most ppl.

The station is actually beautiful and the three car maglev trains are sleek.

Trains are not that frequent, every 15min during peak but late night can reach 30min. Also the operation hours are quite limited starts at 9ish and ends at 9ish (maybe it's tied to the HSR arrivals)

My train arrives, it's arrival speed is a bit slow as there is minimal tail track, MTR Tung Chung Line entering Hong Kong station people will understand.

The inside is really nice, the seats are comfortable, the windows are large but with strange blinds that you would find at someone's home... or a Chinese bus.

LED displays but also with some cute traditional Chinese paper crafts.

Also charging ports at end of each car with luggage racks as a nice touch. There are windows into the driver cab that allow you to see the front. Overall the trains themselves are quite nice.

Then there is the speed, for a maglev the speed is quite slow. The alignment needs to go thru some quite hilly areas so the alignment does some tight curves where the train needs to go 50-30 kph, straight sections go about 80 kph. IMO it's not a big deal ,it's a tourist line.

Meaning speed is less of a concern, and it's not like the maglev takes forever to take me from the HSR station to Fenghuang Ancient Town.

The tunnels thru hills are single bore and seem to be constructed using NATM.

When we arrive close to Fenghuang Ancient Town the maglev takes a sweeping elevated curve that allows you to see the town hugging along the river.

As you saw in the vid above I arrived at night so the whole ancient town was lit up. The driver (or company) knows how to work a crowd, as right before you hit the curve he turns off the lights in the train so you can see the night lights outside better. It was a nice touch.

I arrive at the station, most people get off and my train leaves, the station itself is large and quite nice.

They have an open and closed observation deck in the station for you to admire the ancient town below if you missed recording from the train (like I did)

There are cute little displays on the lower level talking about the Maglev.

Now let's talk access. The most important station, Fenghuang Lansheng, is just north of ancient town, is accessible by an escalator/elevator system with RGB gamer lighting that goes way too hard for its own good (but this is China so it's expected).

On the street level there are these cute electric minibus circulators that take you around the town. But I won't be needing them my hotel is a 200m walk away. I just need to cross the river on a ped bridge...

And into the town where I hit the sack.

The next day I wake up and see where the maglev is in relation to the town, hugging a hill running elevated skirting just above the town. Most likely due to heritage concerns, they probs don't want to run the line too close.

Overall a nice little line, generally does its job of bringing you from the HSR station to the ancient town. Tho I do have some critiques about it and broader transport policy in the town later on. In the meantime here is an idealized version of Late Ming/Early Qing Dynasty China

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