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Geography of Tibet

The geography of Tibet consists of the high mountains, lakes and rivers of central-south Asia. Tibet is often called “the roof of the world”, comprising table-lands averaging over 4,950 metres above the sea with peaks at 6,000 to 7,500 m, including Mount Everest. It is bounded on the north and east by China, on the west by the Kashmir Region of India and on the south by Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Most of Tibet sits atop a geological structure known as the Tibetan Plateau which includes the Himalaya and many of the highest mountain peaks in the world. High mountain peaks include Changtse, Lhotse, Makalu, Gauri Sankar, Gurla Mandhata Cho Oyu, Chomolhari, Gyachung Kang, Gyala Peri, Mount Kailash, Kawagebo, Khumbutse, Melungtse, Mount Nyainqentanglha Namcha Barwa, Mount Nyainqentanglha, Shishapangma and Yangra . Mountain passes include Cherko la, and North Col. Smaller mountains include Mount Gephel and Gurla Mandhata.

QingZang Railway

Construction

Since the formation of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in early 1950s, the Chinese government has dreamed of building a railway connecting Tibet to China proper. Engineers were sent to investigate the possibility, but shortage of technology and money prevented the project from starting. The 815 km section from Xining, Qinghai to Golmud, Qinghai opened to traffic in 1984. Construction of the remaining 1,142 km section from Golmud to Lhasa could not be started until the recent economic growth of China. This section was formally started on 29 June 2001. This section was finished on October 12, 2005, and signalling work and track testing took another eight months. It was completed in five years at a cost of $3.68 billion.

Track-laying in Tibet was launched from both directions, towards Tanggula Mountain and Lhasa, from Anduo Railway Station on 22 June 2004. On 24 August 2005, track was laid at the railway’s highest point, the Tanggula Pass, 5,072 m (16,640 feet) above sea level. Forty-four railway stations are to be built, among them Tanggula Mountain railway station, at 5,068 m the world’s highest (Cóndor station, at 4,786 m, on the Rio Mulatos-Potosí line, Bolivia, and La Galera station at 4,781 m, in Peru, being the next highest). The Qingzang Railway project involved more than 20,000 workers and over 6,000 pieces of industrial equipment, and is considered one of China’s major accomplishments of the 21st century. Bombardier Transportation provided 361 high-altitude passenger carriages with special enriched-oxygen and UV-protection systems, delivered between December 2005 and May 2006. Fifty-three are luxury sleeper carriages for tourist services. The construction of the railway was part of the China Western Development strategy, an attempt to develop the western provinces of China, which are much less developed than eastern China. The railway will be extended to Zhangmu via Shigatse (rikeze) to the west, and Dali via Nyingchi (lingzhi) to the east. A further extension is planned to link Shigatse with Yadong near the China-India border . The railway is considered one of the greatest feats achieved in modern Chinese history by the government, and as a result is often mentioned on regular TV programs. Chinese-Tibetan folk singer Han Hong has a song called Tianlu (Road to Heaven ) praising and glorifying the Qingzang Railway.

Engineering challenges

There were and are many technical difficulties for such a railway. About half of the second section was built on barely permanent permafrost. In the summer, the uppermost layer thaws, and the ground becomes muddy. Chinese engineers dealt with this problem by building elevated tracks with foundations sunk deep into the ground, building hollow concrete pipes beneath the tracks to keep the rail bed frozen, and using metal sun shades.Similar to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System portions of the track are also passively cooled with ammonia based heat exchangers. The air in Tibet is much thinner, having 35% to 40% less oxygen than at sea level. Special passenger carriages are used, and several oxygen factories were built along the railway. At this altitude in these latitudes, water in toilets must be heated to prevent freezing. The Chinese government claimed that no construction worker died during the construction due to altitude sickness related diseases. The railway passes the Kunlun Mountains, an earthquake zone. A magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck in 2001. Dozens of earthquake monitors have been installed along the railway.

Economic impact

With limited industrial capacity in Tibet, the Tibetan economy heavily relies on industrial products from more developed parts of China. Transport of goods in and out of Tibet was mostly through the Qingzang Highway connecting Tibet to the adjacent Qinghai province, which was built in the early 1950s. The length and terrain have limited the capacity of the highway, with less than 1 million tons of goods transported each year. With the construction of the Qingzang railway, the cost of transportation of both passengers and goods should be greatly reduced, allowing for an increase in volume—the cost per tonne-kilometer will be reduced from 0.38 RMB to 0.12 RMB. It is projected that by 2010 2.8 million tons will be carried to and from Tibet, with over 75% carried by the railway. This is expected to boost and transform the Tibetan economy.

Trains and tickets

The trains are specially built for high altitude environment. The diesel locomotives used on Golmud-Lhasa section were made by GE in Pennsylvania, and the passenger carriages are Chinese-made 25T carriages: on train T27/T28, between Beijing West and Lhasa, BSP carriages are from Bombardier. Carriages used on the Golmud-Lhasa section are either deep green/yellow or deep red/yellow. Signs in the carriages are in Tibetan, Simplified Chinese and English. The operational speed is 120 km/h, 100 km/h in sections laid on permafrost. The 1,142-km Qinghai–Tibet railway from Golmud to Lhasa was completed on October 12, 2005. It opened to regular trial service on July 1, 2006.[5] During the one-year trial period, three passenger trains ran from Beijing, Chengdu/Chongqing, and Xining/Lanzhou, numbered T27/T28, T22/T23/T24/T21, T222/T223/T224/T221, N917/N918, K917/K918, respectively. Train T27 from Beijing to Lhasa takes 47 hours 28 minutes, covering 4,064 km (2,500 miles), departs at 21:30 from Beijing West, and arrives in Lhasa at 20:58 on the third day. A ticket costs CNY¥ 389 for hard seat, CNY¥ 813 for a lower hard sleeper (a lower bunk in a basic sleeping car), or CNY¥ 1,262 for a lower soft sleeper (a bunk in a more luxurious sleeping car). T28 from Lhasa to Beijing West departs at 08:00 and arrives in Beijing at 08:00 on the third day, takes 48 hours. Apart from hard seat tickets, there is an extra charge for forward-facing seats/berths. Compared with standard pricing for the same class, the soft seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper tickets have an added charge of 0.09, 0.10 or 0.16 yuan per kilometre per person respectively. Trains from Shanghai and Guangzhou started on October 1, 2006. Train T264/5 from Guangzhou departs at 10:29 every other day and arrives in Lhasa at 19:50 on the third day (duration: 57 hours 21 minutes), while T266/3 (from 4 October 2006) departs Lhasa at 08:32 and arrive in Guangzhou at 19:37 on the third day (duration: 59 hours 5 minutes). Trains T164/5 from Shanghai to Lhasa depart at 16:11 from Shanghai, via Wuxi, Nanjing, Bengbu, Zhengzhou, Xi’an, Lanzhou, Xining, Golmud, Nagqu, arrive in Lhasa at 19:50 on the third day (duration: 51 hours 39 minutes). Trains T166/3 from Lhasa to Shanghai depart at 08:32 and arrive in Shanghai at 13:45 on the third day (duration: 53 hours 13 minutes). Therefore, the Beijing and Lhasa journey is the shortest in terms of time duration. A Passenger Health Registration Card is required to take the train. The card can be obtained when purchasing the ticket. Passengers must read the health notice for high-altitude travel and sign the agreement on the card to take the train. On August 28, 2006 a 75-year-old Hong Kong man was reported to be the first passenger to die on the train, after he had suffered heart problems in Lhasa but insisted on travelling to Xining. [3] On November 19, 2006 a woman died giving birth to a child on her own in a toilet. Ticket prices for five-carriage trains in the testing period were as follows: (Unit: Chinese Yuan)

Beautiful landscape

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