I (American) just took a 10k kilometer rail trip across China for under $500

I'm about to take a 10,000 kilometer trip from Shanghai to Beijing to Xi'an to Chengdu to Kunming to Guangzhou, and back to Shanghai, the entire thing will cost just under 3500 cny. This is equivalent to about $400 USD, and I will be on the newest, fastest train in China (the G, D, and C-series high speed trains) the entire time. <br><br>I thought that this was quite insane, so I wanted to share a quick itinerary and my take on it. <br><br>Day one, Shanghai to Beijing: 460 cny, or $66 USD. This is about half the price of a coach ticket between any two major cities in North America. <br><br>Day two, Beijing to Xi'an: 510 cny, or $74 USD. This is about a third of the price of a bullet train ticket from Boston to NYC. <br><br>And so on. <br><br>At the end of this trip, I'll have traveled 10,000 kilometers (almost 2000 miles more than the distance from Miami to Seattle), gone through some of China's most beautiful mountains, stayed in some of it's most famous historic cities, been served fresh food and been treated to clean, environmentally friendly, air conditioned, 200mph trains, all for under $500. <br><br>Does your country do better?