RUMBLING INTO THE FUTURE
Almost 40 years later, the railway station is a brand new place.
Since economic reforms in 1978, Guangzhou has maintained steady annual economic growth.
In 2017, the GDP of Guangzhou exceeded 2 trillion yuan, compared to just 4.3 billion yuan in 1978.
To cope with increasing passenger flow, Guangzhou Railway Station removed hotels, malls and dancing halls inside the station in 2000 and built new waiting halls, tripling the usable area from 0.5 hectares to a total of 1.4 hectares, Zhu said.
Gone are the days when passengers filled their woven bags with pots and pans and home appliances. Now almost all of them go home only with a suitcase and a mobile phone, Zhu said.
Spacious and comfortable high-speed trains have replaced steam locomotives and diesel trains and, of course, the covered cattle cars.
Facial recognition and virtual reality technology have also been adopted to make the trips easier.
Online booking accounted for more than 70 percent of tickets sold in Guangzhou this year, according to Guangzhou Railway Group.
"Long queues are nowhere to be seen," Zhu said. "If a line with more than 30 people shows up, we will open a new ticket window."
