American has less motivation to have such a Shinkansen, they prefer air passenger as fast means of transport, and cars as hobby.
Btw, for an overnight sleep on train travel, it saves hotel room cost too.
@cnleio : is it easy and cheap to really fly in China? I read from your post it's quite expensive and not comfortable ?
anyway, it saves time. I just checked jetstar rate tomorrow, it costs me about 800,000 vnd ( approx. 35 USD or 250 RMB ) to travel from Hanoi to HCMC ( 2 hours 15 mins flight ), and yes it takes 20min from Hanoi center to the Airport
air travel in Vietnam is the only choice for fast moving, especially while our railway is so bad.
To Sapa from Hanoi, we prefer an overnight ride or 5-6 hours of driving.
for a holiday in Sapa, we finish the work on Friday, take a ride overnight and enjoy the holiday next morning, another night in hotel and Sunday evening back to Hanoi. Just one night sleep in Sapa.