As Fast as You Can Travel on the Earth: The Shanghai Maglev

The Shanghai Maglev is a magnetic levitation train capable of reaching 431 kph.

The train starts with a slow whine, as if it’s powering up, and then shifts into a brisk glide. You can feel the acceleration but the most dramatic effect is looking out the window, since the ride is otherwise smooth and level. The landscape goes by impossibly quickly, creating an arresting visual pattern of trees and utility poles whizzing by like some sped up movie.

So it’s the fastest train in the world, carrying people 8 miles from the Shanghai Pudong Airport to the Longyang Road Station – a station on the eastern side of Pudong. From there it’s a 15 minute subway ride to the city center.

The train was built as a joint venture between Siemens and Thyssen Krupp, completed in 2004. Apparently this 8 mile segment was built largely as a sales tool to convince China to create a national maglev network, Operational details in this link.

“The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed” -William Gibson, The Economist, December 4, 2003.

The Pairing: Mao-Tai (Kweichow Moutai)

If you are traveling at the “speed of the earth,” you need a spirit that vibrates at a similar frequency. Moutai is the “Imperial” spirit of China. A high-proof Baijiu that is as polarizing and high-impact as a magnetic rail. Moutai is a “sauce-aroma” Baijiu. It undergoes a brutal, industrial-scale fermentation process (eight distillations, three years of aging). It has a chemical intensity that mirrors the ozone-scented air of the Maglev station.