0:00 China says its high-spe speed rail network now spans more than 31,000 m, ranking first in the world. At the same time, turnover among highspeed rail attendants has remained persistently high. Some data show turnover rates among highspeed rail attendants ranging from 35 to 45%. With some routes exceeding 50%, fewer than 20% of contract workers stay for 3 years. Recently, many former attendants have posted farewell videos online. A railway worker who resigned said, "I finally quit today. I made an important decision. I don't regret meeting everyone and I don't regret leaving. Goodbye to my one year and 8 months on the railway." Another person said, "I never thought I would give up this quickly. I worked for 1 year and 7 months and now I'm getting off the
0:46 train." A young woman born after 2000 quit her job as a high-speed rail attendant and jumped into the auto parts business. She posted a video saying she once thought she would spend her entire life wearing a uniform and standing on high-speed rail platforms, but now she has moved into the auto parts market instead. Many people are puzzled by this. Highspeed rail attendant jobs in China are considered stable and respectable. Workers can travel across the country regularly. So why is the resignation rate still so high? Chinese media reported that industry insiders describe the profession this way. It looks prestigious, but the work is exhausting. The pay does not match the effort, and the future is uncertain. Analysts say the high number of resignations among female attendants is linked to several real world challenges.
1:32 First, pay is a major issue. Most frontline attendants are employed through labor dispatch agencies rather than as official railway employees. Even when doing the same work, their pay can differ with monthly salaries potentially 30 to 50% lower than those of permanent employees. Frontline attendants typically earn around 2,000 to 3,500 yen a month after becoming regular employees. Many earn around 3,000 to 6,000 yen a month. Labor dispatch companies may also deduct management fees. After paying rent and living expenses in major cities, many have little money left. Another reason is the demanding workload. Female attendants often work more than 14 hours a day, spending most of the time standing or walking more than 18 m a day. Long
2:18 periods of standing and pushing carts while bending over can lead to occupational problems such as varicose veins, back pain, and stomach issues. In addition, rotating shifts disrupt their body clocks for long periods. Waking up before dawn for early shifts and finishing work late at night are common. As a result, many frontline attendants experience insomnia, hair loss, and hormonal problems. This working environment can damage health over time. On top of the physical demands, frontline attendants also have to deal with difficult passengers. They're expected to keep smiling even when facing unreasonable complaints or angry travelers. Since train cabins are monitored throughout the journey, complaints can lead to financial penalties. For many, the mental pressure is even harder to endure than the physical exhaustion. After dealing with
3:05 repeated conflicts and complaints from passengers, some attendants choose to resign. Industry insiders also said that holidays and weekends are usually peak travel periods, which are exactly when attendants are the busiest. As a result, they have little time to spend with family and friends, and their personal lives are taken over by work. In addition, irregular schedules, frequent business trips, and difficulties adjusting after pregnancy make frontline attendance jobs less friendly for female employees. Many eventually choose to resign. Furthermore, highspeed rail attendants currently being recruited are mostly women between the ages of 18 and 25. After becoming attendants, their career paths are limited. From attendant to train conductor, then to team leader.
3:51 Only a small number are able to reach management positions. Many female attendants also face major life changes around the age of 30, including marriage and having children. Without clear opportunities for promotion, some choose to leave and switch careers. Chinese affairs expert Yang Bo said that for Chinese workers, salary is probably the biggest factor. Everyone's trying to earn money. If the pay and benefits were good enough, these workers wouldn't leave. Yang believes that because Chinese authorities do not allow negative portrayals of the economy, Chinese media are unwilling to discuss the real reasons. He said the reality is that China's highspeed rail system has operated under heavy debt for years and has had to cut operating costs. Apart from senior officials who may become wealthy through corruption, ordinary
4:37 employees have little room for wage increases. When the effort required does not match the income received, many workers can't stay. Chinese state media has recently heavily promoted the achievements of China's highspeed rail system, claiming that operating mileage has surpassed 31,000 m, making it the largest highspeed rail network in the world with more mileage than all other countries combined. However, state media hasn't mentioned that China's highspeed rail projects continued to carry a massive debt. On June 18th, 2009, China Railway Corporation, which was responsible for highspeed rail construction and operations, was restructured into China State Railway Group. The company's latest financial data shows that by the end of the first half of 2026, its total liabilities had
5:25 reached about $870 billion US. Although the company reported growing passenger revenue, higher traffic volume, and total assets of about $1.4 trillion, its debt to asset ratio remained as high as 61%. As China's highspeed rail network surpassed 31,000 mi, the scale of lossmaking routes and the debt burden have continued to grow. Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pow reported in 2025, only a small number of highspeed rail lines in China are profitable. These include the Beijing Shanghai route, Beijing Tanjin, Shanghai, Hongjo, Shanghai, Nanjing, Nanjing Hongjo, and Guangjo Shenzhen, Hong Kong. Together, these routes account for only about 5% of the country's total highspeed rail network. The state affiliated observer
6:12 network also reported on May 11th, [clears throat] 2024 that as of the end of 2023, profitable highspeed railroads accounted for only 6% of China's total network. The Beijing Shanghai highspeed railway performed exceptionally well in the first half of 2026, generating about $3 billion in revenue during the period with net profit attributable to shareholders reaching about $940 million. This also highlights that a small number of highly profitable routes generate large amounts of revenue to cover losses from more than 90% of the remaining roots. The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese authorities have long relied on infrastructure spending to support economic growth. Even after China had already built much of the infrastructure it needed, authorities did not change course. The report said
6:58 this model has now become a massive money pit and questioned whether China actually needs so many highspeed rail lines. Chinese highspeed rail network is still expanding rapidly. Official data shows that in 2025, China's total railway fixed asset investment reached about $126 billion, up 6% yearonear. From January to August 2026, that figure totaled about $71 billion, up 1.5% yearonear. According to financial reports from China State Railway Group, China's highspeed rail system recorded net losses of 55.5 billion yen in 2020, 39.8 8 billion UN in 2021 and 69.5 billion UN in 2022. It turned a net profit of 3.3 billion UN in 2023, 3.8
7:46 billion UN in 2024, and 4.3 billion UN in 2025. In the first half of this year, it also reported a profit of 1.85 billion yen. However, many financial analysts point out that even with a record profit of 4.3 billion yen in 2025, China State Railway Group's return on assets was only 0.04% compared with its asset base of more than $1.4 trillion. Meanwhile, compared with revenue of $180 billion, its net profit margin was only 0.33%. Chinese affairs expert Yan Bo said that the current situation shows China Railway Group's total debt has exceeded $870 billion with annual interest payments exceeding $28 billion. That means it has to pay around $77 billion
8:33 in interest every day. He said the financial burden is enormous. China's highspeed rail system is burning money. The whole world is laughing at China's highspeed rail, saying the more it builds, the more money it loses. But Chinese authorities have already changed their strategy, making people across China pay for this money losing mega project. Ordinary people may not fully see it yet, but they're already starting to feel the impact. In recent years, Chinese authorities have repeatedly emphasized expanding domestic demand, and boosting consumption. At the same time, fees in public sectors, including subway services, water and electricity, gas, highspeed rail, and airport services have continued to rise. Among them, China State Railway Group has repeatedly increased ticket prices on several popular routes, including the
9:19 Beijing Shanghai, Shanghai Kunming, and Wuhan Guangho lines. Rising highspeed rail fairs have become a trend in recent years. At the end of 2020, China State Railway Group introduced flexible pricing on some train services. Starting in 2021, it gradually expanded a differentiated floating pricing system for highspeed rail tickets. From May 30th, 2023, ticket prices on several routes were adjusted with increases of up to 20%. In June 2024, ticket prices on several major highspeed routes, including the Wuhan Guangjo section, were raised by up to 20%. On May 11th, 2026, the Beijing Shanghai highspeed rail announced that it would adjust the published fairs for trains running on the Beijing Shanghai and Hfe Bamboo
10:04 highspeed lines. Some fairs would increase by 20% and the highest secondass ticket price would exceed $110. The Beijing Shanghai highspeed rail route currently carries around 500 to 700,000 passengers a day. According to Chinese media reports, highspeed rail tickets for the day before the 2026 National Day holiday went on sale on September 16th. Many passengers found that fairs for September 30th were noticeably higher than usual with some trains increasing by nearly 100 yen. One user posted a comparison of ticket prices. On September 25th, a secondass ticket from Chongqing North Station to Naning South Station started at 446 yen. On September 30th, the same train's fair increased to 520 yen, making each ticket
10:52 74 more expensive. In the comments, some users said sleeper train tickets had risen by 190 yen. Others said some routes had increased by about 25%. Multiple high-speed rail customer service centers responded that ticket prices are subject to flexible adjustments and are not fixed. They said price fluctuations during holidays are normal practice. Railway companies also said that this is not a price increase, but rather a change in discount levels and that the maximum listed fairs have remained unchanged. Some users believe this is clearly an attempt to take advantage of the situation and charge more. Industry insiders say the reason China State Railway Group was able to turn losses into profits since 2023 is largely because higher ticket prices shifted more costs onto passengers. As a
11:37 major public infrastructure project built with taxpayer money, highspeed rail has a strong public service role. However, to make its financial reports show a turnaround, the China State Railway Group has transferred cost pressures directly to consumers. Meanwhile, lower income groups who rarely take highspeed rail contributed to railway construction through taxes but have not equally benefited from the system. However, with China's overall economy declining in recent years and consumer downgrading continuing, the result is if prices go up, people simply stop using the service. Take the Beijing Shanghai highspeed rail route as an example. After the fair increase in May, a secondass ticket for more than a 4-hour journey approached $110. What does that mean? During off- peak seasons, it can cost more than flying. A
12:24 4 and 1/2 hour high-speed train ride can now be more expensive than a flight that takes 1 hour and 40 minutes. At the same time, China's railway authorities have introduced another measure. While high-speed rail fares are rising, they've reduced service on conventional trains known as the oldstyle green trains. Many of these trains have already been suspended. The demand for travel has not disappeared, but people's choices are gradually shrinking. As a result, long-distance buses, which many once believed would disappear, have made a comeback on the streets of the Pearl River Delta. Some routes are difficult to get prices for. According to a report from Chinese media in July this year, a bus ticket from Chuhai to Shenzhen cost 19.8 yen, while highspeed rail tickets start at 140 yen. A bus from Guanghou to
13:12 Jaoing costs only 9 yen, roughly the price of a cup of milk tea. A bus from Guangjo to Jan Xang cost 80 yen, less than onethird of the highspeed rail fair. Some routes have seen passenger numbers surge by 400% with tickets becoming difficult to buy. China built the world's largest highspeed rail network, but now many people are turning around and taking buses instead. The message behind this trend is significant. Some people say it's not that buses are taking away business from highspeed rail. Rather, buses are serving the part of the market that highspeed rail has left behind. On ordinary work days, people post videos showing nearly empty high-speed rail carriages. On September 12th, a content creator posted a video saying that a high-speed train in Shiuang Ba, Yunan Province, was surprisingly empty. On
13:59 September 26, another content creator posted a video saying that ordinary people can no longer afford highspeed rail because while ticket prices have soared, wages have remained unchanged. The high-speed train from Guanghou to Jenziang takes only about 2 hours and costs more than 200 yen. A regular train takes 5 hours and costs only a few dozen yen. Saving more than 3 hours means paying an extra 200 yen. For business executives, those 3 hours could be enough to close a major deal. But for many workers, earning 200 in a day may already be difficult. Besides the price, highspeed rail has another major drawback. Highspeed rail stations are usually built in suburban areas. For people in counties and towns, they still need to take another form of transportation to reach the station, meaning the time saved is often limited.
14:46 During this year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, a huge number of Chinese travelers used high-spe speed rail. However, road traveled by bus and private cars still accounted for the overwhelming majority of cross regional travel. According to the latest official data, during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period this year, China's railways were expected to take 284 million passenger trips. But official forecasts also showed that road transportation accounted for more than 90% of all cross regional passenger movement, including private car trips, rental cars, and long-distance buses. In reality, investment in China's highspeed rail network has often been criticized for waste over the years. Many places have built high-spe speed rail stations that were later left unused. Some stations attracted too few passengers
15:33 after opening and were unable to continue operating. For example, Golang Shan highspeed railway station in Juju City, Hunan Province had a total investment of more than $17 million. It opened in December 2016, but its daily passenger volume was sometimes only in the single digits. The station was eventually suspended from operation in March 2022. Chinese users questioned, "How was this approved in the first place? What was the purpose of building a station in a place like this?" In China, abandoned or unused highspeed rail stations are often called ghost highspeed rail stations and such stations can be found across the country. For example, Zhin East station in Zubo Shandong province was completed 17 years ago, but has never opened and remains abandoned. It ranks among the
16:20 top ghost highspeed rail stations in China. The second place goes to Tsuing Shan East Station which has been unused for 16 years. Located in Nanjing Jang Su Province, the station was built as a connection between Nanjing South Station and Shan Station. It was officially completed in 2010 but has never entered operation. Number three is Jungpu Station in Nanjing Djang Su Province which has remained unused for 15 years. There are currently at least 20 highspeed rail stations across China that have been left unused. Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicly praised China's highspeed rail during an interview with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. He described his previous highspeed rail trip from Beijing to Shien as a great experience and praised Chinese highspeed
17:05 rail stations as extremely impressive. Musk's comments, which appear to align with Beijing's positive messaging, drew mockery from some Chinese users. Some user said, "The highspeed rail station in my hometown was built very grandly. I've taken the train there twice. The station is so big, but there's almost no one there. I was the only person getting on and off. Who planned this project back then? Did anyone calculate the cost?" Another person said, "The Communist Party is skilled at deception." And Musk is also saying things that aren't true. One user posted, "Most of China's highspeed rail lines did not need to be built. The essence of highspeed rail is using money from poorer people to subsidize wealthier people. How many poor people regularly take highspeed rail? There's been a huge number of duplicate and inefficient construction. Besides the
17:50 highspeed rail stations, some people have also questioned the reliability of China produced highspeed trains. One widely discussed fact is that in the early 2000s, Chinese authorities used the country's huge potential highspeed rail market as leverage in negotiations. They reached technology transfer agreements with international companies including Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Germany Seammens and Francis Alam. Among them, Kawasaki Heavy Industries provided core technology based on the Shinkansen E2000 series working with Chinese partners to produce the CR2 Harmony highspeed train. Under the agreement, Japanese companies provided detailed technical drawings, manufacturing processes, and on-site guidance based on principles of commercial trust and technological cooperation. The contracts also
18:36 reportedly specified that the imported technology was only for use within China and could not be transferred abroad or used for overseas exports without authorization. But after the Chinese railway authorities and China State Railway Group obtained the technology, they carried out large-scale reverse engineering. They dismantled Japanese train models, conducted detailed measurements, and reproduced many parts of the designs with only modifications to areas such as the front end appearance and some technical details. They later promoted the trains as independently developed products, including the Harmony series and later the Fushing series. One content creator commented that using decades of research and development achievements from other countries while minimizing the original contributor's role represents a form of technological appropriation and damages trust in international business.
19:23 However, critics argue that even after obtaining foreign technology, the quality of some Chinese-made dupes still failed to meet expectations. A content creator posted a video saying that after passing Tancho South Station in Gansu Province, a high-speed train carriage shook throughout the journey. One user commented, "Highspeed rail is suffering from serious losses and has no money for maintenance. On top of that, Europe is no longer exporting key components to China. It's only a matter of time before things start falling apart." In July this year, the third phase of the Sha Alam light rail transit line operated by Rapid KL in Malaysia experienced an incident during its first week of service. The train suddenly stopped followed by a loud cracking sound and sparks. Passengers were eventually forced to evacuate. The incident was
20:09 caused by train components coming into contact with a power conductor. The trains involved were manufactured by a company under China's state-owned CRRC group. The European Commission previously pointed out that Chinese companies often receive government subsidies from Chinese authorities. While these subsidies allow them to lower prices and win bids, quality is not always guaranteed. [music] >> [music]
