Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Related posts: Beijing Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
In the morning, we attended the Modern Railway exhibition. This is where China showcases their offering within the rail industry.
We were taken for a tour of all major exhibitors. Among others, we visited China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC). CRRC is a major stakeholder in Malaysia as they provide large numbers of rolling stock for KTM and LRTs. They even have an assembly plant in Batu Gajah (in Perak) which provides excellent employment opportunities to Malaysians.
Along the tour, I even got the chance to try out the High Speed Train simulator. Very cool indeed!
In the afternoon, we visited the High Speed Rail (HSR) depot. The depot, like many other complexes in Beijing, is a massive place. When Malaysia builds our own HSR, we’ll be building a similar depot. They didn’t allow photographs but I managed to snap the photo above quickly.
After the depot, we went to the Operations Command and Control Centre (OCC) for HSR, located at the China Railway HQ. It was a massive centre. In fact, it might just be the biggest in the world, considering the vast railway network they have here.
For iftar (breakfast), our host took us to Yijinyuan Restaurant. Another well known halal restaurant in Beijing, Yijinyuan features traditional Chinese architecture and interior deco. The food was really good too.
The restaurant was converted from a traditional Siheyuan (courtyard houses, sometimes referred to as chinese quadrangles). Each of the houses are now dining areas, as seen in the photo above. More information on siheyuan are available on wikipedia here. It was a really interesting dining experience. Too bad they didn’t have any historical information on the buildings in the restaurant. It would great for tourists with historical interests (like myself). Most information was gathered online or from travel books.
Imran Jaafar 