On the right track

It wasn't until the second year of my junior high school in Hangzhou in 2006 that the highway was constructed, and the bus journey was cut to two-and-a-half-hours each way. The flexible choice of bus stations in the city relieved me from the previously arduous trip.

When I started college, I was able to return home on Friday nights after finishing my daytime classes.

Travel by train between Qiandaohu and Hangzhou was simply out of the question before the old train service that had been in existence for around half a century ended in 2009.

But I did make the journey once by train when I was about 10-nearly two decades ago-just because I wanted the experience of riding on a train.

We got up before dawn and then took a boat for over an hour, before walking for about 2 kilometers just to reach the train station. The old-fashioned green-skinned train took us to Jinhua in the middle of the province and then we rushed to catch another train bound for Hangzhou.

The route was circuitous and we arrived at my aunt's home in what is now the Xiaoshan district of Hangzhou late at night.

Yet, I still found it exciting when tree branches brushed against the carriage and touched my arm, and middle-aged strangers greeted me and asked me if the seats opposite were free.

And now with the new high-speed railway, commuting between Hangzhou and home can be completed within an hour, despite the railway station's less convenient location compared to the shuttle bus stations.

Developments in transportation are only one impressive aspect of the modernization process.