Riding a high-speed train from Beijing to Tianjin for the first time, Nyunt Zaw Aung said he was stunned by both the speed and the advanced technology.[Special Coverage]
"It is comfortable and the speed goes as high as 300 km per hour. In my country, trains travel only about 80 km per hour," said Nyunt, an editor with Myanmar newspaper Myawady Daily, who came to China to cover the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
On Tuesday, one day ahead of the opening of the five yearly meeting, he took a tour to Tianjin Municipality with more than 90 journalists from domestic and overseas media organizations.
Many foreign journalists like Nyunt are here for first-hand reporting of the congress and China at large, with hopes to discover "treasures" that can be inspirational for the development of their countries.
As the first high-speed railway in China with a designed maximum speed of 350 km per hour, the Beijing-Tianjin line covers the 120-km journey in just 35 minutes. Since it began operation in August 2008, the line has served more than 200 million passengers.
"I hope trains in my country can match this kind of speed, convenience and high concentration of technology," Nyunt said.
At the end of last year, China had over 22,000 km of high-speed railway lines in operation, more than the total of all other countries combined. The country has started to export its high-speed railway technology and trains.
In Tianjin, the group visited a logistics company where robots on wheels sort out packages based on destinations, the China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City that features environmentally friendly development and part of Binhai New Area.
Traveling in two major municipalities of China, Nyunt couldn't help but compare them with Myanmar's capital Nay Pyi Taw and largest city Yangon.
"I live in Nay Pyi Taw, a new city with good urban planning. But after today's tour, I think the planning in Beijing and Tianjin is even better," he said.
He is planning to write about the Chinese style of urban planning and city management to serve as a reference for Myanmar.
Nyunt said he was also very interested in finding out about China's new directions in the next five years at the congress.
After seeing examples of China's development, Abdulwaheed Odusile, president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, said China's innovative and green development is "encouragement for other developing countries."
"If China can do it, other countries can do it as well. Beyond that, the development in China will be a lesson for other developing countries," Odusile said.
He added that he also wants to find out who the people behind this actually are. "That's going to be one of my focuses tomorrow," he said.
"Coming from Africa, I would like to see policies and decisions related to Africa and China-Africa relations, and naturally I expect more cooperation between China and my country," he added.
Zaheer Alam, from the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, has a similar target. He said that he is looking forward to hearing something new about the China-Pakistan economic corridor.
The colorful shared bikes on the streets of Beijing and Tianjin also caught the attention of many journalists, including Nyunt.
"I want to find out more about how this creative means of transportation is changing people's way of life here," he said.
