High-Speed Rail (China)

choi

Matthew Kronsberg, See China, Rapidly. China can intimidate travelers wary of language barriers and its vast size. But its high-speed train network -- and clever apps  -- make a multi-stop trip easier than ever. Wall Street Journal, Aug 2, 2025, at page D1 (section D every Saturday is "Off Duty").
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel ... -trains/ar-AA1JKNl3

Note:
(a) " 'We're not on Amtrak anymore, Toto,' I thought as I briefly considered adding a set of 'Mao Zedong steam train building blocks' to my order."
(i)
(A) Toto (Oz)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toto_(Oz)
("The inspiration for the name Toto is the small town of Toto, Indiana, near the [author L Frank] Baum family cottage * * * name of Dorothy's dog from The Wizard of Oz")
(B) In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland (then 17 years old) played Dorothy Gale living black-an-white Kansas. A cyclone blew her and the dog to technicolor wonderland of Oz. And she told the dog: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”
(ii) Mao Zedong steam train 毛泽东号蒸气火车 is Lego toy train. The reviewer was in a diner of a train, so he was kidding.

(b) "That first morning I was headed for Wuyuan, a rural county about 300 miles to the southwest, famed for the rapeseed flowers that carpet the hills and valleys in yellow come spring. I planted myself at Wuyuan Skywells, a 300-year-old mansion in the village of Yancun that’s been elegantly renovated into a 14-room inn by British expat Ed Gawne and his wife, Selina, who grew up nearby.   Upon my arrival, Ed took me on a hike to the village of Kengtou along an overgrown postal path. As part of the hotel's 'Local Lady's Lunch Club' program, guests are brought into villagers’ homes to try local dishes. Our spread included pork with freshly dug spring bamboo, and hu doufu [糊豆腐], a comforting combination of soft tofu and leafy greens cooked to a porridge-like consistency. The rice wine [坑头米酒], a specialty of the area, flowed generously. * * * the next morning, I hired a driver to take me to Huangling [婺源县东北部江湾镇 篁岭村], a famed 'ancient village,' about an hour away. I should, he cautioned, expect 'unbridled capitalism' in that popular tourist site, and 'huge crowds mixed with social media culture.' Ed was right. But exploring the terraced village"
(i) Wuyuan 江西省上饶市 婺源县 "has a landscape dotted with strange caves, deep secluded rocks and numerous historic sites. Wuyuan County is home to some of the best-preserved ancient architecture in China."  en.wikipedia.org for "Wuyuan County, Jiangxi/"
(ii)
(A) In zh.wikipedia.org for 婺源县, section 2 行政区划 includes 蚺城街道 (政府駐地), ​江湾镇, 清华镇, ​思口鎮 and ​中雲鎮.
(B) "婺源县，以旧县治清华 '地近婺水之源'而名。" 百度百科 for "婺源县," citing 婺源县人民政府 历史概述. 县治清华 refers to 清华镇.
• 百度百科 for 婺: " '婺' * * * 拼音为wù，部首为女部 * * * 本义指二十八宿中的 '女星'（即女宿），后衍伸出地理标识功能，既指代乐安江上游婺水（今江西境内），也用作隋代设立的婺州旧称（今浙江金华地区）[which has '金华江，又称婺江': zh.wikipedia.org for '金华江']" )

婺 is simply the name of a constellation 星座 (and has no other meaning); 婺 as a constellation is separate from the star Vega 织女星 in Lyra constellation 天琴座. (Both Latin noun feminine lyra
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lyra
and English noun lyre means the same and share the same pronunciation for the y: same as eye.

婺水 is distinct from 金华江.
• 二十八宿
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/二十八宿
(section 2 二十八宿体系, section 2.1 : table: 女星 = 女宿, under 北宫 玄武.
(ii) Wuyuan Skywells
https://wuyuanskywells.com
has no Chinese name, and its address in the website is 江西省上饶市婺源县思口镇延村天净沙民宿.
(A) this website: In the tab "ED & SELINA" at the top horizontal bar is: " * * * Edward Gawne, Selina Liao and their children Victoria & Peter. * * * As a young university student in England, she [Selina] imported make up for sale in the West and later sold bedding to students back in China * * * [Ed had] his upbringing in Southern England * * * [he was in Shanghai, and then] A year spent in Selina's hometown, Nanchang, was a great chance to study Chinese, get to know her family and where she grew up. More than that though, it was chance to take road trips into the countryside, where old houses, farms and forests are in no short supply.   Thus it was, we first came to Wuyuan" in 2015)
(B) skywell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywell
("an alternative name for a lightwell, an open or windowed space in a ceiling to allow light to flow into a room")
(iii) Village of Kentou 江西省上饒市婺源縣中雲鎮 坑頭村
(iii) English dictionary:
* spread (n): "3: something spread on or over a surface: such as
  b: a sumptuous meal : FEAST"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spread
(iv) In print and online , WSJ has a photo of Huangling terraces. I read the former first and was perplexed by various colors in steps (each step with flowers of the same color) of a terrace: red, white, purple, even though the text says it was rapeseed (which displays YELLOW flower). The online photo correctly shows all yellow.


(c) "hongqing's futuristic Central Business District [解放碑中央商务区], another of the city's great calling cards—spicy food—announced itself. The chile-scent of hot pot perfumed the air, while sixty-one stories above, the space-themed NOVA Planet High Altitude River View Hotel [Nova星球·高空全江景酒店 (2018- )] offered sweeping views of skyscrapers covered in illuminated animations, straight out of 'Blade Runner.'   The next two days were a blur of exquisitely fiery xiao mian noodles [重庆小面] and long, aimless walks through the city.
(i) For calling card, see visiting card
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visiting_card
(ii) Blade Runner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner
("a 1982 science fiction film")

(d) "Xi'an welcomed me with an eerie orange sky, the effect of a sandstorm, but the skies were blue again by morning. I had hired Wenqi Zhang, founder of the service LocalFun Xi'an [www.localfunxian.com], to show me around the Dongcangmen market. Quick to share knowledge and opinions on the city's food scene, she steered me away from predictable tourist moves: say, asking for peppers on your roujiamo [肉夹馍], a sort of Chinese hamburger. * * * [in Shanghai] at a tiny cafe called the Here ['Here Cafe Lounge' has no Chinese name]"