Discussion keeps the world turning.
You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Fei Fei together with Yushan and Steve Haverly.
Coming up, for parents, summer vacation has a secret upside.
Drop your kids at the airport, watch them board with a very friendly flight attendant.
And enjoy a blissful week of peace on your own.
It's a well-oiled system on the airlines, so when China's railway network now became faster and more connected than ever, many parents naturally thought, you know, why not trains?
Just hand them off at the platform, right?
Sorry, wrong.
The real waste answer is a hard, hard no.
So, why not?
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And now...
Summer vacation is one of the busiest travel seasons in China, with many families taking trips, visiting relatives, sending their children to summer programs.
But what happens is that a lot of parents can't accompany their children on these journeys.
So sometimes they'll drop them off at the airport under this service called unaccompanied children.
And so they can leave their children very safely with the airlines with a flight attendant and having them safely arriving to their destinations.
So can kids also take
High speed trains on themselves.
We have a new regulation, a new railway regulation taking effect this summer saying no, Yusheng.
What exactly does this new railway regulation say?
Yeah, first of all, this regulation came into effect on June the 1st in 2026 as part of the newly revised railway passenger transport regulations issued by China's railway officials.
And the biggest change is except for a few special circumstances, such as certain commuting students, children under the age of 14,
Must travel with an accompanying adult.
And the risk regulation does leave room for a couple of very limited exceptions, like students who regularly commute between home and school may be allowed to travel independently under
Designated arrangements.
Another exception applies to children who receive special approval from the railway operator in specific circumstances.
This regulation also closes previous loopholes in ticket purchases because for children between 6 and 14 years old, discounted child tickets must now be linked to an account.
Accompanying adults ticket, meaning they must be on the same train, traveling to the same destination and sitting in the same class of service.
Yeah, very similar to when you're trying to purchase an airplane ticket.
Um when i try to purchase a ticket a flight ticket for my children i must register my information first of all and then their ticket must be linked to mine to an adult ticket otherwise you cannot make that purchase for that children unless you decide to go with the uncompanied
Services on airlines and that the number of those services is limited per flight.
And we can talk about that later into the show.
But I want to come back to this new regulation, this new railway regulation.
Why does Chinese railway authorities decide to launch such a new
Well, I think because the environment of a train is an environment where the staff of the train, they cannot act like the guardian of the child.
It's just it's a hectic environment.
The train stops at many different locations.
Passengers are moving in and out of or on and off the train frequently.
So it creates this environment where it's very difficult for the staff to keep their eyes constantly on a child of those ages.
So that's one of the reasons that they're doing this.
This summer, there were social media platforms that were flooded with these so-called guides that showed parents how to send children on high-speed trains alone.
Some influencers claimed that there were booking tricks that would allow kids to board by themselves, while others falsely suggested that applying for the railway's priority passenger service meant staff would escort children throughout the journey.
So people were trying.
I don't know if they were trying to figure out a way or if they were.
Um suggesting just simply suggesting things that weren't true
Because of what reason i don't know but those claims turned out to be um incorrect
In fact the the railway operator that's one two three oh six right they said
They said yeah all that stuff online wasn't true
Yeah, that's actually, you know, the whole rule thing when I was looking at it for the first time, it was a little bit counterintuitive to me.
I was thinking, OK, the new regulation now from the rail with or authority, it's got to be more services that they can provide because we heard that now you can.
Transport your paths, your skiing gears and everything.
They can just provide more and more service.
And now maybe they're offering another service for maybe accompanying your kids.
But now it is not the situation.
It is like banning you from sending your kids alone to the train.
Yeah, they're not offering you more services, but on the other hand, they are coming out giving you a very explicit no, because in the past, before this summer, before the exact date, during the first,
I think for me, when I'm trying to purchase a train ticket for my children, there is a loophole there.
They're not saying, you know, we are offering these unaccompanied children traveling services for you, but they're also not giving this clear ban on kids taking a solo trip.
Before June the 1st, children could in practice travel alone because there was no such a ban.
And so you can purchase tickets in some cases for children under the age of 14, but now very similar to a flight ticket.
Ticket, you must link the ticket for children under the age of 14 to travel with an adult.
Well, not only just link the ticket with an adult, you have to be with an adult.
That is explicitly stated now that if you're not 14 years old, you got to be with an adult, except for those exceptions that you mentioned before.
So there's that.
And yeah, the discounted child tickets from 6 to 14, as you mentioned, they have to be linked as well.
And those are two of the biggest changes that came with these new rules.
It seems like it's just clearing up.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe they were just confused because those do exist for elderly passengers.
Yes, yes.
So maybe the online community thought, oh, that applies to kids as well, but it doesn't.
So now with the new rules, everybody should be super clear on what they can and can't do when looking at travel for their child near that age.
And that brings me to a question that Yusheng mentioned earlier is that it's kind of counterintuitive when most of the time when we're talking about high-speed train services, they're just launching more, giving you more.
But now they're sort of restricting on these kind of services.
And also considering for airlines, there have been dedicated unaccompanied minor services for children traveling alone for many, many years.
It happens in China.
It happens in other countries as well.
It's a very mature service.
Developed system already, then why railway is so special and cannot offer such services even with today's, I mean, technology and mechanism in place?
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing because so previously they were doing like we will see what we can do.
We will try our best to, you know, protect our children if they're traveling alone.
But people are taking advantage of this kind of quote unquote extra kind of service that they are trying to be in kind.
But the thing is that there is a very big difference in the travel environment when we're talking about traveling in a train and also in airlines.
So air travel takes place in a largely closed system.
As you mentioned, yes.
Once passengers pass through that security, they remain in that restricted areas before boarding a flight that travels directly from one airport to another.
You will just be in this one closed environment.
You can't go anywhere.
But high-speed rail is a more open and dynamic environment because they need to stop in every station and stop.
You can get in and get out.
Trains may stop at several stations with passengers just boarding and getting off at every stop.
And this creates many more barriers.
Opportunities or just, you know, that kind of window for a child to become separated from their belongings, miss their stations or accidentally just leave the train at the wrong stop.
Yeah, I think, too.
Well, there's a couple of things.
Yes.
All of that, which you should just said the environment is different.
But number two, airlines have been doing this for a long time.
Yeah.
Right.
So they have the system put in place and they have staff specifically perhaps for that to help receive children at the gate and help them get on the plane safety safely as well.
So that's another thing.
But then also, if you think about, you know, a train conductor versus an airline flight attendant or crew member, the ratio of crew to passenger is much lower for an airline than it is for a train.
Oh isn't it well you just think about the number of people who take a train on average from the first car to the last car versus the number of passengers that you get on an on an aircraft um
The FAA, they actually have regulations about this that require one flight attendant for every 50 passenger seats.
So that's a ratio of one to 50, right?
Yeah.
But that would be very, very different if you look at, you know, how many cars are in a high speed rail?
Normally eight.
Sometimes more than that.
So if you take...
Okay, let's use eight as the minimum, though.
You're carrying about, what, 500, maybe 600 passengers on those eight cars?
So you'd have...
I don't know.
You'd have one crew member for maybe every 150 passengers.
Oh, that many.
Or something like that.
So the ratio is just way off.
And also, the kids can simply go from car to car to car to car to car.
Imagine trying to keep up with a seven-year-old on a seven-hour train journey.
Trip, it would be very, very, very difficult.
It would be a very intimidating scenario to think about, especially when you have an 11-year-old at home.
So I'm also curious, we talk about authorities are not
Definitely not inputting more such services for the railway system in the future, then what do parents feel about it?
Are they accepting it?
Are they happy about this kind of decisions?
Let's ask you first.
How are parents feeling about this?
Yeah, I'm the only parent in this studio right now.
No, the only two, one of the two parents in this studio.
Actually, thinking about dropping my kid alone on a, for example, even half an hour train ride from Beijing to Tianjin, for example.
Is still a very intimidating thought.
Even from Beijing to Tianjin, I think the train will stop at least two stops along the way before they reach Tianjin.
And there are people coming on, getting on the train, getting off the train.
Your kids also have the free will to decide whether she or he want to get on or off the train.
For example, the train is now stopping in this city for two minutes.
Why not get off and get some fresh air?
And then they miss that call of going back to the cart and miss the train.
Yeah.
Now imagine they leave their phone on the train when they get off to get that fresh air.
They're only like seven year old.
They don't know what to do.
They're panicking alone on a very strange place on a train.
They know no one on that platform and they just see people, crowds going back and forth and feeling lost on that platform.
So I think- So you're happy with this?
Yeah, I'm very happy that they're doing it.
And also on some level, we sort of give the railway operator a reminder, I'm traveling with a child, sometimes I need more help from you guys.
And I don't think it is like basically banning some kind of behavior because it is not that common that parents will just send their kids to the train station alone and then they will just travel.
I think it's more like clarifying what these staffs and what the train authorities can do and what they're offering.
They're telling you we're not offering these kind of services.
Please don't.
At least take advantage of the kindness that these staffs are offering you.
And also parents need to kind of avoid that kind of misunderstanding about the situation.
Independence that they can cultivate through these kind of activities.
Yeah, you can't cultivate independence by just giving them a solo trip on the train is not the way to do that.
I won't recommend.
Really?
What about on an airplane though?
Because we talked about the differences.
You've definitely never dropped your kid.
I've traveled by myself on an airplane, yes.
As an adult.
So for a kid, for the unaccompanied kids traveling alone on flight,
It's a very safe journey because when you drop your kid at the airport, you drop them with a flight attendant.
And they have a specially made vest, sometimes in green, sometimes in orange.
And they have a card saying, I am an unaccompanied kid.
And in the airport, so everybody knows this kid is traveling alone.
And there will be one flight attendant following that kid from the airport to the boarding gate.
And when they enter that boarding gate, they will be handed to the flight attendant on that flight.
And that flight attendant will come back to the kid
Multiple times throughout the flight, checking with him or her about, are you hungry?
Are you okay?
Are you doing okay?
Do you need toys?
Do you need to go to the bathroom?
Do you need my help?
I can't imagine an attendant on a railway train going to the kid and checking with him or her constantly throughout the journey.
It's just not feasible.
Yeah, I agree with your description, Steve, that a train ride is more dynamic.
Thinking about a seven-year-old trying to go to the bathroom on a train.
How would she call an attendant on that train for help when they're trying to go to that bathroom?
I'm not saying that a seven-year-old needs help going to the bathroom.
It's how to get there.
What if an emergency happened?
Who is there to help?
Yeah, what if they get sick?
What if they need some assistance that goes beyond what the railway can offer?
You're not going to get any disagreement out of me.
I think this is a great idea.
I might even bump up the age even higher if it were me.
I think 14 is...
Quite generous
I think it's a very reasonable number
But I wouldn't be upset even if they said 15 or perhaps even 16 years
16 might be a little bit on the high side
But yeah my point is that this is quite reasonable I think
Do other countries have like similar service, I'm not sure, to allow children traveling alone on trains?
Also, age restrictions are put in place in the United States.
I think Amtrak is the name of the large railway system.
But you can't think of Amtrak as you think of the high-speed rail in China.
It's just not really comparable.
But they have rules.
You have to be between 13 to 15 to travel alone.
They do allow 13 years old.
They have what they call an unaccompanied minor program, and that includes some pretty strict safeguards.
If you're under 13 years,
Then you need to be with someone at least 18 years old.
So that's probably going to be like your, I don't know, maybe your older brother or sister or a cousin or something like that.
Yeah.
So on some level, they're also not sort of restricting kids traveling alone on trains.
And I think the reason for a lot of parents wanting to enjoy this kind of service is to drop their kids at the platform alone and go back home themselves and thinking, you know, my kid is going to get to the destination safely and then their, for example, grandparents will pick them up.
At the station, at the train station, one of the reasons I can think of is trying to help them to create that independence for children, you know, to do things on your own.
That is one of the reasons why I want my children to enjoy that unaccompanied kids traveling or services on flights.
So when they, what about on flights, sure, but when they get to 14, will you be comfortable sending them on the train?
I'm not even comfortable sending them alone on subways.
Oh, really?
Under the age of 14.
You stay above ground at all times.
Unless it's like a regular commute between their schools and homes.
And I feel confident they know the routes, they know the time, they know how to do that.
Because you never know on the journey, a lot of emergencies happen.
They bump into strangers.
You just never know how they would react.
But what is good is that we can see there are exceptions.
There are actually probably emergencies that happened and these kids just really have to do that alone.
And I saw that, of course, they are offering many services that they can from these schools.
Training systems.
I mean, you can actually go register and make an appointment if you need a wheelchair.
At any station, they will just have staff hold a wheelchair and be there and wait for you.
There is a kind of registration system for you.
And maybe in the future, if the staff is like...
It may be an option somewhere, but right now it is not.
And that brings us to the end of today's roundtable.
On behalf of Yusheng, Steve, and the whole roundtable team, thank you for tuning in.
I'm Fei Fei, and I'll see you next time.
