Home / Travel_改版1 / Travel -- Where to go Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Read | Comment
Journey to Top of the World
Adjust font size:

One passenger suggested that if the train were to chug along for seven more hours, it would reach India. That was after China's newest marvel the Tibet Express or the Qinghai-Tibet train had heaved its way along the world's highest railroad to the roof of the world. 

 

In July 2006, China linked the Tibet Autonomous Region to the rest of the country with this engineering miracle, which involved laying a 1,142-kilometer track through some of the highest and most inhospitable terrains. The peak was the pass into the Tibetan plateau rising to 5,072 meters, a height at which Qomolangma summiteers set up base camps. A little more engineering and some diplomatic miracles, and the train could very easily have been steaming into Nathu-La, a pass on the Indo-China border.

 

As part of a first group of Indian reporters, we boarded the train on an afternoon last August in Lanzhou, a northwestern Chinese city and one of the four from where the train originates. The others are Beijing and the cities of Xining and Chengdu.

 

China describes the train as a mammoth steel dragon zooming into Tibet a train touching the sky. That's almost true. About half the route is set on terrain frozen for most of the year and is called permafrost. Here, the tracks are set on reinforced foundations that remain stable only if the soil does. And to ensure that heat doesn't twist the tracks, there are 6-foot tubes filled with liquid ammonia along a 600-kilometer stretch keeping the soil cool by helping the heat escape.

 

I soon realised that the train is for those who believe that the journey is more important than the destination although in this case the end point is equally exotic.

 

As the train pulled out of Lanzhou, a buzzing industrial metropolis, the urban landscape faded along with the northern light. Soon, passengers were filing into the dining car and settling in with a beer, and some fried beans, tofu, boiled greens and sliced watermelons.

 

At daybreak, the train was already pulling into Golmud, a city on the edge of the Gobi Desert and the real starting point of the new high-altitude railroad. As passengers caught the morning rays and took pictures, an announcement warned them that from here on, the entire train would be pressurised and oxygen pumped in.

 

As the train heaved across the relentless green expanse, skirted by snow-capped peaks, cameras and binoculars were pulled out and people craned their necks. The train was entering the home of chiru, one of the most endangered antelopes, which have been killed for centuries to make shahtoosh shawls. And as the first chiru little larger than a spaniel of a flock was seen, a buzz went through the coach. "Here, look here."

 

The chirus disappeared quickly from the double-paned window frames as the digital display in the galley showed that the train had groaned all the way up to 4,500 meters. It was heading to its highest point called the Tanggula Pass, the gateway into Tibet at 5,072 meters, after crossing the Tuotuo River bridge, the genesis of the Yangtze River.

 

As another dusk settled in, one gazed out at the unending flat landscape with electric cables stretched all across from Central China to Tibet and dotted with communication towers, and wondered. These, and not just the mighty Olympic stadiums, the skyscrapers in Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu, are the real sinews of an emerging world power. All one had seen for hundreds of miles were yaks and Tibetan herders, yet cell phones in the train hadn't stopped jingling.

 

The author is an editor with The Times of India, a major Indian newspaper

   

(China Daily January 22, 2007)

 

Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Read
Comment
Pet Name
Anonymous
China Archives
Related >>
- Rural Fair Reflects Ancient Tradition
- Expats Puzzled by Some Habits, Such as Staring
- Scenic Surprises: Exploring Hong Kong's Hiking Haven
- Luxury Trains Evoke Romantic Era of Rail Travel
- The Train Journey to Tibet, Not Just Destination
- On the Tibet-Sichuan Highway
Most Viewed >>

Product Directory
China Search
Country Search
Hot Buys
主站蜘蛛池模板: 一级毛片免费的| 亚洲人成网站日本片| 美女视频黄.免费网址| 波多野结衣免费视频观看| 在线观看国产一区亚洲bd| 丰满少妇人妻久久久久久| 本道久久综合无码中文字幕| 亚洲精品影院久久久久久| 美女免费网站xx美女女女女女女bbbbbb毛片| 国产极品视觉盛宴| av网站免费线看| 年轻的嫂子在线线观免费观看 | 男女抽搐动态图| 国产丝袜一区二区三区在线观看| 黑寡妇被绿巨人擦gif图| 国产精品无码AV天天爽播放器| 99精品国产成人a∨免费看| 好吊日免费视频| 一区二区三区视频免费观看| 成人区人妻精品一区二区不卡网站| 久久久久无码国产精品一区| 日韩内射美女片在线观看网站| 乡村乱妇一级毛片| 樱桃直播免费看| 亚洲人成色7777在线观看不卡| 欧美成人性色生活片| 亚洲欧美另类久久久精品能播放的| 丁香色欲久久久久久综合网| 特级毛片免费观看视频| 免费夜色污私人影院在线观看| 精精国产www视频在线观看免费| 国产99久久亚洲综合精品| 色综合色综合久久综合频道| 国产亚洲精品无码专区| 韩国特黄特色a大片免费| 国产在线高清视频无码| 你懂的免费视频| 国产精品久久精品视| 美腿丝袜亚洲综合| 国产精品666| 欧美一区二区三区综合色视频|