tooironic Posted February 4, 2015 at 12:58 AM Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 at 12:58 AM So I know 高铁 is "high-speed rail", but what about 动车? AFAIK, 动车 is not as fast as 高铁, but still faster than a normal 火车. So how can we translate it into English in consideration of this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
歐博思 Posted February 4, 2015 at 01:25 AM Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 at 01:25 AM http://www.uic.org/spip.php?article971 might be an interesting read. And IMO, each layer below is progressively more delimited as to what kind of train being described: Train>High-Speed Rail>Bullet Train Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
陳德聰 Posted February 4, 2015 at 04:35 AM Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 at 04:35 AM As far as I can tell, 動車 (動車組) is the generic term for high-speed rail, and 高鐵 is the term that was coined for the particularly fast high-speed trains. I agree that "bullet train" sounds faster than high-speed rail, but in reality the distinction is nowhere near standardized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aone Posted February 4, 2015 at 05:54 AM Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 at 05:54 AM 动车DONG-TRAIN has 2 types。电动车Electric Multiple Units（EMU ）和 柴油动车Diesel-fuel Multiple Units（DMU). Originally, it is a technical term indicating a kind of technology which is applied on most (if not all) of high-speed rail (GXXX), Intercity rail(CXXX) and Dong train(DXXX). Essentially, there aren't many differences between high-speed rail and Dong train. They say, Train<Bullet Train= Dong Train<High-Speed Rail, but I see none sharp difference on speed, It takes me 2 hours from Qingdao to Jinan, either by GXXX or by DXXX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stapler Posted February 4, 2015 at 09:14 AM Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 at 09:14 AM let's not forget the noble 绿皮车！ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maomao2014 Posted February 4, 2015 at 01:36 PM Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 at 01:36 PM 铁道部目前定义：动车指代时速在200公里级别的铁路线路；高铁指代时速在300公里级别的铁路线路 一般而言，动车在有砟铁路上，高铁在无砟铁路上 砟，是岩石、煤等碎片的意思，无砟轨道指的就是没有小石头的轨道。 动车的线路类型：1.对既有线路实行电气化改造 2.新建的电气化线路 高铁的线路类型：新建的无砟轨道。 动车组指的是列车的类型,高铁用的是动车组。它是中国独有的叫法，区别于以前的普通列车。 I guess you cannot find the counterpart in English http://view.news.qq.com/zt2011/DGC/index.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
歐博思 Posted February 5, 2015 at 05:55 AM Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 at 05:55 AM Also consider if the distinction is that important to even make. I'm taking a train from Hangzhou to Xiamen next week, and G and D trains both take the same amount of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelyus Posted February 6, 2015 at 10:55 AM Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 at 10:55 AM The difference between 高铁 and 动车 is specific to the mainland, so I'd translate the latter as D train/rail/ other appropriate term when necessary. The term on Taiwan is 高鐵 [exclusively?]. The French TGV is given the standard translation 高速列车. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floatingmoon Posted February 10, 2015 at 01:03 PM Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 at 01:03 PM Actually they are the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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