Making tracks a train crosses the Tuotuo River on the new Qinghai-Tibet railway. Chinese officials say the line, to be opened today, is the world's highest rail system. Photo: Reuters
Mary-Anne Toy Herald correspondent in Shenzhen
July 1, 2006
CHINA unveils its latest dazzling engineering feat today, the $5 billion Qinghai-Tibet railway. It is the world's highest railway and finally links Beijing to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in a travelling time of just under 48 hours.
For more than 50 years the railway line from Beijing ended at Golmud, an ancient camel caravan stop in central Qinghai province. But China's leaders have long dreamt of building a railway across the roof of the world.
Rail and engineering experts from the rest of world doubted it was feasible. The challenge of building at lung-defying altitudes of up to 5000 metres above sea level, and across hundreds of kilometres of permanently frozen earth in some of the most isolated and rugged terrain, was said to be too hard.
Defying the doubters, the new track runs 1140 kilometres from Golmud, through seemingly endless swathes of grasslands on Qinghai's high plateau, via dazzling azure lakes and through the fabled Kunlun Mountains down to Lhasa. It links Tibet to China's extensive rail network.
Most of the new line is above 4000 metres. The highest point is 5072 metres, and officials say this means the Qinghai-Tibet railway takes the honour of the world's highest railway from a Peruvian railway through the Andes, which is 200 metres lower.
Critics of the project fear the railway will end Tibet's economic and cultural isolation, which has kept most of the autonomous region in poverty but has also helped mitigate the assimilation of Tibet into the Han majority culture that dominates China.
Tibetan independence and environmental groups also fear the impact on the fragile ground cover of one of the world's few pristine environments, home to endangered species such as the Tibetan antelope.
The link will undoubtedly accelerate the migration of Han Chinese from the overpopulated central regions, fuelling concerns that Tibetans will soon become a minority in their own capital.
The line has important military benefits, allowing Beijing to more swiftly and efficiently move troops and supplies into Tibet and along China's border with India.
The Chinese Government, which has pledged to reduce the growing inequality between central and western China and the prosperous eastern and coastal provinces, says the rail link will provide a cleaner, safer and quicker alternative to the existing, often perilous, Golmud-Lhasa Highway.
Beijing says it will enable Tibet to participate in China's economic growth.
The new rail link is projected to generate more than 4 billion yuan ($686 million), and bring 900,000 tourists to Tibet annually.
To counter environmental concerns, more than $130 million has been spent on building tunnels for migrating wild animals, restoration after construction and other measures. A special garbage-collecting train will run once a week to pick up refuse from rubbish storage centres and sewage processing stations along the route.
A basic ticket will cost 389 yuan from Beijing to Lhasa.
The railway goes from Golmud to Lhasa 
The first trains were flagged onto the Qinghai-Tibet Railway line, the world's highest railway line connecting the Tibetan capital Lhasa with Golmud in Qinghai, China. At its highest point in the Tanggula Pass, the railway line reaches an altitude of 5072 metres.

The line is designed for travel at speeds of 100 km/h on frozen ground to 120 km/h on non-frozen ground. The cabins are supplied with oxygen because of the thin air at the high altitudes. The windows have ultra-violet filters to keep out the sun's glare. Cooling pipes have been used to ensure the ground remains frozen.

Air trips to Tibet are expensive and road trips slow and dangerous.
Three trains, each carrying 900 passengers are scheduled to run daily along the line. The basic tickets cost 389 yuan to go from Beijing to Lhasa. The trip should take just under 48 hours. According to state television the tickets for the inaugural trip sold out within 10 minutes.

Speaking at the flagging-off ceremony in front of the Golmud railway station, the Chinese President Hu Jintao said, "The project is not only a magnificent feat in China's history of railway construction, but is also a great miracle of the world's railroad history,"

The Chinese government states that it spent more than US$95 million reducing the environmental damage of this railway. Passengers will not be able to open the windows of the train to litter. There will be a rubbish train to pick up refuse from various sites along the line.

Critics claim that the railway will be used to assert control over Tibet as the line can quickly transport Chinese troops to Tibet during unrest.

They also claim that the railway will damage both the environment and the culture of Tibet. Tibet is home to many endangered species such as the Tibetan antelope. 

On Friday, 3 women from the United States, Canada, and Britain were detained for displaying a banner saying "China's Tibet Railway, Designed to Destroy" at Beijing's main station.

"It's the first direct, low-cost, quick, and easy way for migrants to arrive in central Tibet. This will lead to the overwhelming of Tibetans and competition for scarce jobs. The eventual idea is the dilution of Tibetan language, culture and identity," said Lhadon Tethong, executive director of the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet.

"The railway line itself is not a cause of concern for the Tibetan people," said Thupten Samphel, spokesman for the Dalai Lama's government in exile. "How it will be used is the main concern."

"Despite the rosy economic forecasts and dire predictions of Chinese control, the train is unlikely to touch off social disaster or commercial windfall," said Andrew Fischer, an economics researcher at the London School of Economics.

"When the railroad opens the commercial service and more people move in and out of the region, I think it will be good for the outside world to know more about Tibetan culture," Zhu, the railway official, said. "No culture can develop and thrive in a closed environment."