Same yet different

Liu Wei, who has been working on the trains for 29 years, felt that living along the railway was a lonely experience when he was a kid. "Only the sound of train whistles could cut through loneliness," says the 47-year-old lead attendant of his childhood memories.

Liu went to school daily by train. There, he would watch the villagers bargain and sell their wares and observe how the train attendants worked.

"As a child, I was fascinated by the attendants' uniform," he says, adding that this fascination impelled him to become a railway worker after growing up. He started working on the train at the age of 18 after graduating from senior high school.

Over the years, he has developed a rapport with the train commuters. He often urges the students to do their homework and mediates disputes, and helps villagers find proper markets for their agricultural produce.

Over the years, Liu has witnessed the changes on and outside the trains.

Areas along the railway are no longer isolated. They are today filled with newly constructed modern buildings. The goods that people carry with them have become more diversified, from primarily potatoes and apples to walnut, olive and building materials, among others.

In January this year, a Fuxing Electric Multiple Unit left Liangshan for Yunnan's capital Kunming, marking the departure of the first Fuxing bullet train from the prefecture.

Despite such transformations, some things have stayed constant. The fares have remained unchanged for more than 30 years and the trains continue to operate at their initial speed.

Though famed for having the longest high-speed railway network in the world, China still operates some 81 slow train services. They cover 21 provincial-level regions, transporting some 12 million people annually for an average fare of no more than 0.06 yuan per km.

China aims to extend its total length of operational high-speed railways to around 50,000 km by 2025. Meanwhile, the national railway operator has pledged to improve services and infrastructure of slow trains and related stations to ensure safe and comfortable journeys.

"No matter how much the world changes and how fast the high-speed trains become, the slow trains are still 'lifelines' for locals. I'm willing to do my job as long as I can, and see more children leave the mountains for better lives," Liu says.