Last year my friend who came to Xiamen wanted to go to Mt Wuyi and took a 12 hour train ride to get there. This year, I decided to go to Mt Wuyi and it took a mere 3 hours.
High Speed Trains in China
4 years ago (has it been that long?!) I wrote two very long, detailed posts about train travel in China. It explained what a train station was like, how to get a ticket, the different classes of seats etc, etc.