According to a paper in The Lancet in 2020, during the period of 1985~2019, China had the world's largest increase in men's height and the third highest increase in women's height in the world.
Indeed, the average height of Chinese has increased significantly in recent years, from 166.7cm to 173 .8cm for men and from 155.1cm to 161cm for women.
But in any case, except for a few individuals, the height of the Chinese has not exceeded 2 meters, and it is even far behind, while the height of China's high-speed railway station is very unexpected, in the case of Nanjing South Railway Station, the building height is 59.96 meters, close to 60 meters.
In fact, there are many factors behind it, mainly the following points:
1. Prevent excessive stuffiness
During the Spring Festival on January 21~27, 2023, the national railway sent a total of about 50.174 million passengers.
Imagine, if you take the 2.8-meter floor height of a commercial house as an example, 5,000 people gather in a low building, just like a 120-square-meter commercial house, squeezed in 200 people, the winter is better, not to mention how hot it is in the summer, or it will be associated with the situation of crowding the subway in the morning rush hour of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Under normal circumstances, the high-speed rail station with a height of more than 30 meters, once the air conditioning and refrigeration system is not started, there will be passengers suffering from heat stroke, let alone the high-speed rail station with a height of 3~10 meters.
2. Prevent odor accumulation
On September 14, 2023, the two ate snail noodles on the G1651 high-speed train, and the smell directly permeated the entire carriage, and some passengers even mistook it for the smell of the toilet at first, and the response of the railway customer service was "I didn't say that passengers are not allowed to eat it, it is not recommended to eat it".
So the problem is, if thousands of people are at the same high-speed rail station, some people eat instant noodles, some people eat snail noodles, some people have a strong smell of sweat, some people have a strong smell of feet, some people have eaten leeks, carried a strong smell of dried radish pickles, etc., plus some people cough violently, if the building height is enough, these smells will be concentrated in high places.
However, if the high-speed rail station is relatively low, the strong smell gathers in the sky and gradually spreads to the passengers' noses, and the lower the building, the purification function of the ventilation system is not ideal.
Don't say it, at the high-speed rail station and when taking the train, a lot of people will take off their shoes, and the smell is really unbearable, everyone who has experienced it understands!
3. It helps passengers to easily see the stop sign
It is not difficult to see from the picture that the stop signs of the major ticket gates are located at high places, as long as passengers enter the station, they can see the direction of the ticket gate when they look up, so as to quickly find the corresponding ticket gate and prepare for the train.
If the height of the building is low, the height of the various signs will also decrease, for example, a 160cm woman standing behind a 185cm man, then the woman's field of vision will create a large blind spot, if the sign is tall enough, the short woman can easily see.
And on crowded holidays, the high-speed rail station receives 2~50,000 passengers in a single day, and in the case of congestion and no signs, passengers have to look for it slowly, and it is easy to delay the time to enter the station.
4. Helps in noise reduction and lighting
The high-speed rail system will carry out voice broadcast every once in a while, and the sound of the broadcast will be canceled out by the sound of the ground, if the building height is sufficient, the noise of the ground personnel will spread obliquely upward, the high-speed rail station uses the architectural design structure, can greatly absorb the noise, and helps passengers to hear the voice broadcast of the high-speed rail station in time.
In addition, the space of high-speed rail stations is large, and if all of them are illuminated with lights, it will also increase a lot of operating costs, and many high-speed rail stations are made of glass on the top floor, which increases the entry of natural light and reduces the use of artificial lighting.
5. Helps improve security
When the high-speed train enters the station, it will produce very strong noise, if the frequency is too high, the sound wave will also cause vibration damage to the building, in addition, some trains will not stop when passing through the small platform, and still pass at a high speed of 250~350km/h, and the noise generated is greater and stronger.
In addition to noise, high-speed objects can also generate air waves, so when waiting for the train, do not blindly hold an umbrella, otherwise there is a very big potential danger.
When the high-speed rail station is built, the structure will be designed to improve the stability, greatly reduce the noise and air waves of the train, and in the limited land area, a multi-story structure may be adopted to increase the utilization rate of space.
6. The high-speed rail station is a city card
By the end of 2022, the total operating mileage of China's high-speed rail was as high as 42,000 kilometers, steadily occupying the first place in the world.
Whether it is tourism, business or visiting relatives and friends, it is really very convenient to choose high-speed rail for a shorter distance, and the high-speed rail station of each city is equivalent to the city's business card.
Imagine that if you are a businessman and take the high-speed rail to City A, and find that the high-speed rail station here is dilapidated and old, it will subconsciously affect your inner judgment.
If you travel to city B and find that the high-speed rail station here is clean and tidy, you will naturally have a good feeling, and tourism will drive the development of scenic spots, transportation, hotels, catering, engineering construction and other fields, so the high-speed rail station as a city business card, should also be built a little more atmospheric, it seems that the high-speed rail station has a huge investment, but in fact it will increase the income in other fields.