China the Beautiful

[chinapage]

After much publicity, the new Maglev (magnetic levitation) train begin operating between Downtown and Pudong Airport on Sept 9, 2003.

President Johannes Rau of Germany was among the fist passengers.

The top speed of the train is 430 Km/hr. Round trip ticket sells for RMB 150 yuan.

At the present, the trip is for tourists only, who can not disembark at the airport station.

http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2003-09-20/19451782189.shtml

http://www.chinapage.com/map/maglevmap.html

http://www.chinapage.com/road/maglev/maglev.html

[Keith]

Excellent! That was a long bus ride...

But why only for tourists? If I were a native Chinese person, I might be a little irritated at the favoritism shown to foreigners that I experienced during my trip. (I didn't refuse it, though!)

[sllee]

I saw the contruction when leaving from Pudong airport in September 2002. I thought the idea was for tourists who are going to and from the airport. BTW, downtown is downtown Pudong, not downtown Shanghai Puxi.

Pudong airport is far from the downtown. Looks like a lot of land is reserved for future development and buffer.
_________________
SL Lee
http://www.asiawind.com

[chinapage]

Dear Keith:

I don't mean to say that these trains are for foreigners only.

At the present time, the trains are for tourists (any paying customers) only, and not for people who are going to the airport to catch a plane.

You buy a round-trip ticket, and is not allowed to disembark at the airport station, but must return on the same train. So it's just a ride for the sake of riding.

The trains are not yet fully operational.

Ming

[Aolung]

Although developed (and sold to China) by Germany, our politicians didn't yet make up their minds where to realize a project like this in our own country. There were a couple of places already thought of, among them one from Munich downtown to Franz-Josef-Strauss airport. Yet this object of prestige seems to be far too expensive for our small country. Our politicians (and industry) are happy that China kept to the idea of purchasing the "Magnetschwebebahn" (up to the moment China being our only customer for it).

Alfred

[chinapage]

Dear Aolung:

Is "Magnetschwebebahn" created by magnet+schwebe+bahn ?

What is the original meaning or source of "schwebe"?
We have been reading a lot about the new Governer-elect Schwarzenegger of California who was born in Austria.
I assume that the name is a combination of Schwarze+negger.

Ming

[Aolung]

Dear Ming:

_schweben_ has the notion of flying/soaring without movement, or e.g. the falling of a snow flake *without* the movement downward, i.e. standing still in the air *above* the ground.
So there are different expressions in English:

- suspension: there's the German term "Schwebebahn" which means "suspension railway", and, semantically, doesn't really hit the point of _schweben_ because the cabins are *hanging on a suspended iron rope*

- hover: I think that's the same idea!

- pending: e.g. as of a process (ein schwebendes Verfahren/ein schwebender Prozess)


Schwarzenegger - Tu felix Austria! The Austrians seem to be crazy with happiness.

Here's my two-cents-etymology:

schwarz - black
egg - seemingly an ancient spelling of _Eck_ (corner, angle, maybe denoting some _far-off spot/place_). "das Eck" is southern German/Austrian dialectal for High German _die Ecke_.
The ending _-er_ is forming singular and plural nouns with the notion of "the one(s)...", very often in a locative sense.
So, maybe here: "the one(s) from Schwarzenegg" (very likely a placename in Austria/Bavaria etc.)

But why not _Schwarzegg_ instead of _Schwarzenegg_? Maybe the ending _-en_ here is denoting a plural _die Schwarzen_ (the blacks/black ones) -> the spot where those people/hills etc. referred to as black are living/situated etc.

Hope this helps a bit (and Mr. Terminator is not getting angry on me).

BTW, since quite a couple of years, there's a nice Austrian "ear worm" (song one cannot get out of one's memory) partly in English and in dialect:
"Steyrer Buam san very good, very very good for Hollywood..." (Boys from Steiermark/Styria are...) Okay, then - we will see!

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de

[whl626]

[chinapage]

No. There is none; and none is under construction.

There are intense debates underway about what form of the new
super-fast train will be built.