samtsai.com

Tibet Rail runs from Lhasa (capital city of Tibet) to Golmud (province QingHai). This railway will continue and connect to Beijing. Tibet-Qinghai railway was officially open on July 1, 2006 with its first train arriving in Lhasa on July 3.

LHASA, China (AP) - China’s new train from Beijing to Tibet arrived in the ancient capital of Lhasa on Monday, ending its maiden journey after climbing to elevations so high that ballpoint pens and packaged foods burst.

Some passengers breathed oxygen from tubes - many just out of curiosity - as the pressurized train crossed a 5,072-metre pass in Tibet’s Tanggula Mountains, an elevation the Chinese government says makes the $4.2 billion US railway the world’s highest.

In a customary greeting, girls in track suits and traditional Tibetan robes draped white scarves on passengers arriving in Lhasa’s new railway station.

The train is a new tool in China’s much-criticized push to bind its booming east to the Himalayan “roof of the world.”

… … …

China’s government says it is spending $190 million US on environmental protection along the Golmud-Lhasa stretch of the railway. But despite promises to minimize pollution, the sides of the line were littered with plastic bags, bottles and cardboard boxes. Large sections of the permanently frozen ground were grassless, puddled and scarred by vehicle tracks.

Damaged permafrost “becomes dark, ugly, muddy water,” said Daniel Wong, an engineer based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen who worked on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, also laid over permafrost.

“The most unfortunate thing is that such damage will spread,” he said.

Trains completed shorter trips on the line between Lhasa and Golmud in Qinghai province while passengers on the 16-car train from the Chinese capital were in the midst of their journey. The train cars, built by Canada’s Bombardier Inc., are fitted with doubled-paned windows with ultraviolet filters to protect passengers from the sun’s glare.

… … …

After the train climbed above 4,000 metres, pens and bags of processed food burst due to the low air pressure. Laptop computers and digital music players failed, because moving parts in their disk drives are cushioned by tiny air bags that break at high altitude.

The railway is projected to help double tourism revenues in Tibet by 2010 and cut transport costs for goods by 75 per cent. Until now, goods going to and from Tibet have been trucked over mountain highways that are often blocked by landslides or snow, making trade prohibitively expensive.

The New York-based group Students for a Free Tibet set up a website, rejecttherailway.com, urging the public to wear black arm bands in protest of the project, which the group says “is a tool Beijing will use to overwhelm (the) Tibetan population.”

… … …

The rail line is a decades-old dream for Chinese officials. But work began in earnest only in 2001, after engineers worked out how to stabilize tracks on permafrost.

Source: cbc.ca

Where is Lhasa and Golmud?

Lhasa is the capital of Tibet, and Golmud is a city in province Qinghai. The following picture illustrates the relative location and distance between the two cities.

Tibet Train on its journey to Lhasa

Interior View of the Tibet Train

Commemoration of Qinghai-Tibet Railway Construction
˚ ˚ ˚ Commemorative Stamps ˚ ˚ ˚

The building of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway started on 29th June 2001. The 1142 kilometre-long railway extends between Golmud in Qinghai Province and Lhasa in Tibet Autonomous Region. Its sections over 4,400m above sea level total 960km, and the highest section, which crosses the Tanggula Mountain, is at 5,072m above sea level. The railway passes 550km of ever-frozen land. The construction of the railway, the highest and longest one on plateau in the world , is planned to be finished in six years. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a representative project in China’s implementation of its strategic decision to develop China’s west at the beginning of the 21st century.The significant project is a magnificent task in the world history of railway construction and has drawn the attention of the world.