Metro map of China's high-speed rail makes transferring between lines simple and easy (and it looks very cool)

Looking at this map of China's high-speed rail system, it's hard not to be impressed. Almost none of these routes existed a decade ago, and now these epic, snaking paths leave no area of the country untouched.

From Shanghai to the depths of Xinjiang and back again - via Beijing and maybe swinging by Xiamen and Shenzhen - China's high-speed system has transformed the way that people think about navigating the country.

In addition to being an interesting abstraction of China's rail sytem, this map is actually pretty useful. It can be a bit tricky to coordinate rail trips that involve switching between the nation's high-speed routes, and this helpfully-simple representation of the nation's main hubs makes it incredibly easy to spot where to switch from one line to another.

So print out a high-res version of this map and ride the rails! Just check back soon - at the rate new HSR routes are opening up, any map will be out-of-date almost as soon as it's published.

Full-resolution version here.

H/T Mapporn