train station signage | Fotoeins Fotografie

Bahnhof Alexanderplatz, Fernsehturm, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, Germany, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: ALEXA at night in Berlin

20 December 2012.

The bright letters of the illuminated sign help light the way to the S-Bahn and regional train station at Alexanderplatz in Berlin. The Television Tower bisects the sign as an arriving S-Bahn train appears in motion-blur to the lower-left. The landmark tower and station signage are an appropriate way to end my period of two months in the German capital city on the last stage of my year-long around-the-world (RTW) journey.

I made the photo above on 20 December 2012 with the Canon EOS450D, 18-55 kit-lens, and the following settings: 1/15-sec, f/4.5, ISO800, 32mm focal length (51mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-9lZ.

Abfahrtstafel (Departures board), Frankfurt am Main Hauptbahnhof, fotoeins.com

How to read signage at German train stations

You’re excited – you’ve finally arrived in Germany. You’ve decided to travel the country by train, but you’re not familiar with the German language, and you may find the signs puzzling and difficult to read.

The following is a short visual descriptive guide to signage at German train stations to help get you on your way. Examples below are taken from Frankfurt am Main Hauptbahnhof (central or main train station), although descriptions should apply similarly at other stations.

Below are descriptions to:

Departures board (Abfahrtstafel)
Destination signage (Zugzielanzeiger)
Car sequence signage (Wagenreihungsplan)
Arrivals-, departures schedules (Ankunfts-, Abfahrtspläne)

( Click here for more )

Hong Kong: almost China at the Lo Wu gateway

I’m at the turnstiles, off to the side from the steady stream of people going through to the other side.

I’m standing on the one side in Hong Kong (香港).

The other side is the city of Shenzhen in the People’s Republic of China’s province of Guangdong (Kwangtung | 廣東 | 广东).

MTR trains come in from Hong Kong and stop here at the end of the line. People pour out of the trains, and head for Shenzhen. There are occasional lulls in between frequent arrivals and departures of the trains, reminding me I’m in the middle of the countryside and at the frontier section separating between what most people know as Hong Kong and China.

Over on the “other” side, Shenzhen is a strong economic force, helped along by its special designation as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), but there’s still a special allure for many to working inside Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Region. MTR rail passengers depart Hong Kong and enter Shenzhen at either the Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau (Spur Line) crossings. The average cross-border passenger traffic numbers are 220,000 and 80,000 people per day, at Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau, respectively (Source 1, Source 2).

From an economic, urban planning, and logistics point of view, it’s no surprise there’s a push to amalgamate Shenzhen with Hong Kong to create a super-metropolis here at the mouth of the Pearl River. Hong Kong has over 7 million people, whereas the population of neighbouring Shenzhen exceeds 13 million. Many would like to see easier and faster movement of goods and people between the two cities, but many in Hong Kong fear an exacerbation of existing problems with overcrowding and overburdened resources.

But what of the people going back and forth? How many from China and/or Shenzhen enter Hong Kong for work or school, and reverse course at the end of every day? How many from Hong Kong go to work in Shenzhen?

I wonder what the daily routine is for someone going back and forth between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. I watch patiently, and I wonder what it’s like on the other side. I have no doubt there’s someone on the other side in Shenzhen who’s wondering the same thing.

( Click here for images and more )