Chen Hu believed his policies were being implemented smoothly, as the data reported from various sectors looked good. Initially, there were no significant issues. While the enthusiasm among riders to pay a deposit for exclusive delivery electric vehicles wasn't high, this was considered normal and expected to improve over time.
Chen Hu remained convinced that once Dida Delivery also completed its transformation, evolving from a subsidy-driven enterprise to a quality-focused one, it would inevitably defeat Ebudao.
Considering this conflict was likely to be a protracted, long-term war, let us shift our focus away from the disputes between these two delivery companies and turn to another matter that was shaping global public opinion: the world's first vacuum high-speed maglev pipeline railway.
Following the official opening of this pipeline railway, allowing all Chinese citizens to travel freely via pipeline trains, it immediately became a focal point of global attention.
Although news about this pipeline railway had been constant from its construction to its opening over several years, with continuous progress reports and media coverage, the world was still stunned when the railway actually opened to the public and was presented to everyone.
Almost all media outlets worldwide rushed to China, desperately trying to purchase a ticket from Harbin to Nanning.
Despite being the most expensive ticket on the entire route, it allowed a person to travel from a world of ice and snow to a flower sea brimming with spring in just over two hours. Such a transformation in time and space was too remarkable to miss without experiencing it firsthand.
Given that people were willing to buy tickets for flights costing thousands of dollars, why would they hesitate to spend less than $100 on a train ticket?
Indeed, a ticket from Harbin to Nanning officially cost 649 yuan, which, converted to US dollars, was less than $100.
This price was astonishing. Compared to high-speed rail, even a traditional green-skin train ticket from Harbin to Nanning cost around 600 yuan.
Yet, the vacuum ultra-high-speed maglev pipeline train, the pinnacle of global technology, charged only 649 yuan, a price so low it far surpassed the imagination of most ordinary Chinese citizens.
In fact, before the ticket price was announced, various media outlets had been speculating about it, with the lowest estimate being around 1200 yuan per ticket, and the average price ranging between 1800 and 2000 yuan.
This was comparable to the price of a flight for the same journey, which took six and a half hours.
Therefore, before the ticket price was revealed, public interest in the route was generally low. Regardless of how fast the vacuum ultra-high-speed maglev pipeline railway was or how groundbreaking its technology, when people were choosing long-distance travel, they would naturally opt for the more affordable option.
After all, this was money coming directly out of their own pockets.
However, the announcement that tickets would only cost 649 yuan, a third of the price of a comparable flight, instantly went viral. Through social media campaigns, almost all Chinese people learned about this unexpectedly low ticket price overnight.
The direct result was an explosive demand for the Harbin to Nanning route. Originally, due to the low anticipated passenger volume, the operating company had only designed two trains per day, essentially one round trip, with a total seating capacity of just over 200.
But on the first day of operation, the company discovered that over 100,000 people wanted to book tickets. Many intended to board at an intermediate city along the route, travel to Nanning or Harbin, and then return. Some even purchased same-day round-trip tickets.
Later investigations revealed that these individuals were treating the journey from Nanning to Harbin as a form of tourism. The experience of traveling through a vacuum tube, instantaneously traversing from the country's southernmost point to its northernmost, was incredibly appealing.
Wasn't this more attractive than spending thousands of yuan to visit a tourist attraction and be gawked at like a spectacle in a crowd?
Consequently, when the Chinese public realized the ticket price was only 649 yuan, they rushed to book. The very next day, China High-Speed Rail Development Company announced the addition of tourist special trains, adding thirty daily round trips between Harbin and Nanning. Even with these additions, the daily capacity increased only from 200 to 6000 passengers, still far from meeting the demand of ordinary Chinese citizens.
A month later, the number of tourist special trains had increased to one hundred per day, carrying an astonishing 20,000 passengers daily. Yet, this still could not satisfy the massive tourism demand, with booking queues stretching three months ahead.
Many travel agencies began touting the availability of train tickets as their biggest selling point.
Under these circumstances, it became very difficult for the belated foreign journalists to obtain regular tickets for the special trains.
Many reporters spent more than half a month in Harbin or Nanning without managing to get a ticket.
But they couldn't just stay in these two cities without doing any work; they needed to produce at least one or two news reports to submit.
So, one reporter had an idea and edited their experience of being stuck in Harbin for half a month into a news story, which was posted online. The effect was explosive, and the news went viral globally.
Only then did the China High-Speed Rail Development Company realize the situation was untenable and urgently added a special train for journalists, specifically for these reporters, to help them switch locations between the two cities where they were stuck.
At that time, China's immigration authorities suddenly noticed a sharp increase in foreign tourists entering China in the past few months.
The reason for saying "again" was that such a surge had already occurred once earlier in the year. At the beginning of the year, following the exhibition of the Jia Yuan mechs at the Bird's Nest stadium, a large number of foreign tourists, drawn by their fascination with all things mechanical, visited China.
For these foreign tourists, the cost of traveling abroad was relatively inexpensive. A trip abroad for their beloved mechs was equivalent to just a week or two of their salary, hardly a high expenditure.
However, this resulted in unprecedented data for China.
Firstly, it set a record for import and export tourist numbers, with over 12 million tourists entering the country within two months, doubling the usual figure of around 6 million.
These additional tourists were almost entirely headed for the Bird's Nest.
This time, a similar situation occurred again. Within two months of the vacuum ultra-high-speed maglev pipeline railway opening, the total number of inbound tourists exceeded 10 million.
While this number might seem less than the surge earlier in the year, the effect of this phenomenon was shorter, with most of the new foreign tourists arriving in China during the second month. Thus, the actual attractiveness of this event was considerably stronger than that of the mechs.
After all, the mechs could only be observed from a distance; one couldn't actually experience riding them.
However, this time, visitors could actually board the vacuum pipeline train and experience this world-leading technology firsthand, a mode of transport previously only seen in science fiction films.
The promotional effect was naturally immense.
According to calculations by the tourism bureau, China could attract over 50 million additional overseas tourists in the coming year.
These overseas tourists generally have strong spending power, with each person spending an average of $2,500 domestically, amounting to $125 billion in tourism consumption.
This is a direct impact; the indirect impact on GDP could exceed $600 billion, almost reaching 0.9% of the national GDP.
This change naturally drew attention from all levels within the country, leading to the rollout of various emergency measures, all designed to attract foreign tourist spending.
The most significant of these measures clearly involved the vacuum ultra-high-speed maglev pipeline railway itself. Consequently, China High-Speed Rail Development Company successively announced the addition of special trains for overseas tourists, which later evolved into specialized tourist services catering to different languages. These trains featured multilingual crew members and interior decorations tailored to different linguistic groups, ensuring a perfect experience for these tourists.
Incidentally, the ticket prices for these overseas tourist trains generally increased by 30% to 50%. After all, these special arrangements incurred costs, so price hikes were expected.
Tourists were largely unfazed by this, as they considered a ticket price of less than $100, even with a 50% increase, to be a mere $150 – still incredibly affordable.
Of course, ordinary tourist trains alone were not enough. Soon, China High-Speed Rail Management Company announced the official launch of high-end train operations.
The term "high-end train" didn't refer to the technological sophistication of the train itself but rather to the elevated standards of its internal facilities and more personalized services.
Firstly, the most criticized aspect of the regular trains by passengers was the absence of restrooms onboard. If one needed to attend to personal hygiene, they had to use disposable waste disposal equipment in their seats.
Therefore, unless absolutely unavoidable, most people would endure the journey and wait until disembarking.
Fortunately, the longest journey on the train was just over two hours, making it manageable to hold it in. If absolutely necessary, the train would make a stop at an intermediate station, allowing passengers 20 minutes to use the restrooms at the station.
While this method generally addressed the issue, the user experience was undeniably poor.
The high-end trains first tackled the restroom problem.