Increasing car usage encourages greater investment in urban public transport. Chongqing 2017 [Photo by Bruce Connolly/chinadaily.com.cn]

There were lovely moments from 1993, such as at Shaoguan in northern Guangdong where I tried to purchase a sleeper ticket to Guilin. Initially unable to make myself understood, I was taken to an office on the second floor, invited to sit down with a cup of tea while the manager of the station came in, shook hands, spoke some English and carefully organized a ticket for the following day. Indeed when I talk with people who have similarly been in China for many years, the words "more of an adventure" are often used to describe rail travel during those, for me, exciting days.