08NOV06 The Tibet Railway - an engineering marvel with political baggage
Beijing-Lhasa, The Qinghai-Tibet Railway - The highest railway in the world climbing up to 5,200 m (Tanggula Mountain Pass).
It is, by any reckoning, one of the great engineering feats of our age. Over the last five years, more than 100,000 workers have worked to build the US$4.2-billion engineering miracle that traverses the 1,140 kilometres of mountains and permafrost between Tibet's capital, Lhasa, and the Qinghai frontier city of Golmud, where existing track runs to Beijing. The railway extends over the Kunlun Mountains and across the Tibetan plateau, through some of the highest, coldest and most forbidding real estate on the planet.
Now the trains are running every day—and during the peak tourism season of May to September, they are delivering 1,000s of tourists to this ancient city.
Maybe trains were not meant to go this high.
That's what Swiss engineers concluded when they were brought in to consult more than a decade ago, and the Chinese are taking conspicuous delight in proving them wrong. Building a railroad into Tibet has been the obsession of every Chinese leader since Chairman Mao, and this past July they finally succeeded.
If anyone was up to the task, it was the Chinese. After all, it was Chinese laborers who built the most difficult parts of Canada's transcontinental railroad. Many at the expense of their lives.
For those looking for a novel way to visit one of the world's more remote corners, the new express train to Tibet offers an extraordinary trip. From the ubiquitous oxygen outlets to the vacuum flush toilets, from the flat screen TVs in Soft Sleeper Class to the tracks anchored in the shifting permafrost, the "Sky Train" as China calls it is a marvel of modern engineering.
But the trip comes with some heavy political baggage. The Chinese government says it will help invigorate Tibet's economy. But critics say it threatens to crush a Tibetan culture already weakened by 56 years of often harsh Chinese rule.
With additional trains planned for the 2007 season, running from Shanghai and Guangzhou to Lhasa, and destined to deliver 1,000s more passengers daily to this fragile landscape, I was determined to visit Tibet at my earliest convenience to observe the impact for myself.
Beijing-Lhasa, The Qinghai-Tibet Railway - The highest railway in the world climbing up to 5,200 m (Tanggula Mountain Pass).
It is, by any reckoning, one of the great engineering feats of our age. Over the last five years, more than 100,000 workers have worked to build the US$4.2-billion engineering miracle that traverses the 1,140 kilometres of mountains and permafrost between Tibet's capital, Lhasa, and the Qinghai frontier city of Golmud, where existing track runs to Beijing. The railway extends over the Kunlun Mountains and across the Tibetan plateau, through some of the highest, coldest and most forbidding real estate on the planet.
Now the trains are running every day—and during the peak tourism season of May to September, they are delivering 1,000s of tourists to this ancient city.
Maybe trains were not meant to go this high.
That's what Swiss engineers concluded when they were brought in to consult more than a decade ago, and the Chinese are taking conspicuous delight in proving them wrong. Building a railroad into Tibet has been the obsession of every Chinese leader since Chairman Mao, and this past July they finally succeeded.
If anyone was up to the task, it was the Chinese. After all, it was Chinese laborers who built the most difficult parts of Canada's transcontinental railroad. Many at the expense of their lives.
For those looking for a novel way to visit one of the world's more remote corners, the new express train to Tibet offers an extraordinary trip. From the ubiquitous oxygen outlets to the vacuum flush toilets, from the flat screen TVs in Soft Sleeper Class to the tracks anchored in the shifting permafrost, the "Sky Train" as China calls it is a marvel of modern engineering.
But the trip comes with some heavy political baggage. The Chinese government says it will help invigorate Tibet's economy. But critics say it threatens to crush a Tibetan culture already weakened by 56 years of often harsh Chinese rule.
With additional trains planned for the 2007 season, running from Shanghai and Guangzhou to Lhasa, and destined to deliver 1,000s more passengers daily to this fragile landscape, I was determined to visit Tibet at my earliest convenience to observe the impact for myself.
posted by Ants at 7:46 p.m.
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