A: 	Hi Joe! How was your trip to China?
<br/>B: 	Absolutely brilliant. I had a wonderful time.
<br/>A: 	In what way?
<br/>B: 	As you can imagine, I was on the move over the Chinese New Year in 2008 and managed to get around quite a bit.
<br/>A: 	Did you get to Shanghai?
<br/>B: 	Yea and while I was there I travelled on the new Maglev train.
<br/>A: 	Oh yeah! I've heard about that new magnetic train in China. What was it like?
<br/>B: 	It was like no other kind of train on tracks. In fact it was a flight.
<br/>A: 	A flight? How do you mean?
<br/>B: 	We lifted off early in the morning of the Year of the Horse and landed at the airport eight minutes later. But we never left the ground!
<br/>A: 	A flight in a train. Wow! That sounds amazing!
<br/>B: 	Yes, my flight was aboard Shanghai's brand-new Maglev (magnetic levitation) train, the world's fastest, most futuristic passenger line. 
<br/>A: 	The train runs from the city centre to Pudong airport across the river from Shanghai.
<br/>B: 	Pu''.. what airport?
<br/>A: 	Pudong. P-U-D-O-N-G. 
<br/>B: 	So what else is special about this flying train?
<br/>A: 	Well, the train rockets to 300 kilometres per hour in two minutes flat. Overhead, like a giant scoreboard, an LED blinks out our record-breaking progress till we top 430 kph. 
<br/>B: 	That's faster than our local train!
<br/>A: 	Actually, the Maglev is faster than any speeding locomotive precisely because it's       as much like a plane as any railroad we've known. 
<br/>B: 	But why do you say it was a flight? Surely the train didn't have any wings?
<br/>A: 	No, nor wheels or engine either!
<br/>B: 	So, how does it work?
<br/>A:  	With magnets. First, powerful magnets lift the entire train about 10 millimetres above the special track, called a guide way. This directs the passage of the train. Other magnets provide the drive and braking, and the speeds - up to 500 km/h in test runs.
<br/>B: 	Is there a need for such speed? 
<br/>A: 	Certainly not on such a short sprint, barely 30 kilometres from the subway in Pudong to the airport. 
<br/>B: 	And where might this new train take us? 
<br/>A: 	Athens to Thessaloniki in a flash at hyper speeds. 
<br/>B: 	What are the disadvantages?
<br/>A: 	None yet! The Maglev is pollution-free, with no exhaust and almost no noise so I can't see anything wrong in that. 
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