A Railway Called “the Heaven Road”
    On June 29, 2001, from China’s west was reported the news that caught the world’s attention: a railway project that will cost a huge investment has been unveiled in the world’s highest place. This is the “heaven road” -- the Qinghai-Tibet Railway that will run across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
    A Rare Road For Humanbeings
    The plateau is called the “roof of the world” and “third polar of the world”. Roads to the plateau have been extremely difficult. Two stories could describe how hard they were:
    In 1951, the Chinese Government used a quarter of the country’s camels - 40,000 - to form an unprecedented team to transport materials from Qinghai to Tibet. On the road to Tibet, more than 10 camels would die every 1 kilometer.
    In January 1952, the government sent the 10th Panchen Lama back to Tibet from Xining, Qinghai Province, with a large number of horses, camels, yaks and mules. More than 30,000 animals died as the team went across the 2,000-kilometer Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
    A simply-constructed Qinghai-Tibet highway was built in 1954. For each truck of gasoline transported to Lhasa, half would be consumed on the way. More than 30 army men from each transportation regiment in Tibet would die on the road.
    There is an observation station working for 40 years on a weathered volcano in the depopulated Kekexili area
    To improve the transport conditions of Tibet, the Chinese Government started to study the feasibility of building a railway to Tibet in the early 1950s. In 1960, the Northwest Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Ministry of Railway set up a frozen soil observation station on the 4,700-meter weathered volcano in Kekexili. The station has been working there for 40 years.
    The first phase of Qinghai-Tibet project was completed as early as in 1984
    Qinghai-Tibet Railway is an important part of China’s railway network. It lasts 1,925 kilometers, starting from Xining, capital of Qinghai Province in the east and ending in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The project was divided into two phases. The first phase covered 815 kilometers from Xining to Golmud, in western Qinghai. This part started to be built in 1958. It was suspended in 1960 and resumed in May 1974. Thousands of Chinese scientists went up to the plateau to do the surveying work under extremely harsh conditions. The hand-drawn blueprints were said to be able to fill two trucks. In May 1984, the first phase of the Qinghai-Tibet project was completed and handed over to Lanzhou Railway Bureau for operation.
    Due to the limit of technical know-how and economic strength, the second phase of the project - from Golmud to Lhasa - did not go on. But the designing and surveying work has never stopped.
    The 5,072 -meter pass on the Tanggula Mountains will have the world’s  highest railway station in the world
    On February 8, 2001, the second phase project began, starting from Golmud, climbing over Kunlun Mountain and Kekexili Mountain, crossing the Tuotuo River and the Tongtian River, going over Tanggula Mountain via Yashiping to Anduo, Nagqu and Dangxiong, running through Yangbajing valley and ending at Lhasa. The total length is 1,142 kilometers, including 588 kilometers in Qinghai and 554 kilometers in Tibet. The whole line will have 30 stations. The 5,072-meter Tanggula Bealock will be the world’s highest railway station. There will be 283 bridges and 10 tunnels.
    The railway project has a total budget of 26.2 billion yuan. The construction will last six years. The designed transport capacity is eight pairs of passenger trains and one-way freight transport density of 5 million tons. The project is pushed from north to south section by section: On June 29, 2001, the section from Golmud to Kunlun Mountains started. Now the 140-kilometer road base was built. The track started to be laid on June 29, 2002; on September 26, the 1,686-meter Kunlun Mountains Tunnel, which penetrated through the 4,600-4,800 meter permanently frozen soil, was completed; on October 3, the main body of the bridge at the source of the Yangtze River - called the “No. 1 Bridge on the Yangtze River” - was finished ahead of schedule; the frozen soil project from Kunlun to Tanggula Mountains (including Anduo) has begun. It is planned to be completed in 2004; the bridges, tunnels and road bases will be basically completed in 2005; in 2006, the track will be laid to Lhasa; the whole railway line will be done on July 1, 2007. At present, more than 24,000 laborers are working for the line, and more than 6,000 sets of equipment have been put into construction. By the end of 2002, 6.4 billion yuan of investment for the project had been realized.
    This is the longest railway in the world that goes through plateau, paramos, anoxic area and permanently frozen land
    The highest point -- 4826 meters-- of the railway in the world is now in Chile, and the second highest point -- 4,782 meters -- is in Peru. But the highest point of the 1,142-kilometer Qinghai-Tibet Railway is at 5,072 meters at the bealock of Tanggula Mountains. About 965 kilometers of the railway go through the area with an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, including 550 kilometers of permanently frozen land. So it is the longest railway in the world that goes through plateau, paramos, anoxic area and permanently frozen land.
    Passages For Antelopes To Migrate
    --1.2 billion yuan put into environment protection on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
    Now the three major problems for the railway - paramos and anoxia, permanent frozen land and fragile ecology - have been basically solved. How the railway construction will avoid damaging the already fragile ecology on the plateau has been a problem that the Chinese Government works hard to tackle. It is estimated that the money for environmental protection projects along the railways will be 1.2 billion yuan.
    On the plateau lives a rare type of animals: antelopes. Each year, they will do a major migration to cross Kekexili. Will the railway block their migration route? In designing the railway, the government built dozens of passages at the Kekexili section for antelopes, which will cost about 300 million yuan.    Four railways to Qinghai -Tibet plateau were planned; but the Qinghai -Tibet Railway is the shortest and most  efficient one
    The Qinghai-Tibet Railway ended the history that Tibet, making up one-eighth of the country’s total territory, was the only one of the 34 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, including Taiwan, which did not have an inch of railway. The railway will be a cut-short linking Asia and Europe.
    Three more railways to Tibet had been planned: Gansu-Tibet, Yunnan-Tibet and Sichuan-Tibet railways. The lengths of the four railways are respectively: Qinghai-Tibet, 1,142 kilometers; Gansu-Tibet, 2,126 kilometers; and Sichuan-Tibet, 1,927 kilometers; and Yunnan-Tibet, 1,594 kilometers. In terms of construction period for the projects, Qinghai-Tibet, six years; Gansu-Tibet 32 years; Sichuan-Tibet, 38 years and Yunnan-Tibet 32 years. In terms of transportation routes, the railway line from Lhasa to Beijing and Shanghai via Qinghai-Tibet railway are 3,952 and 4,326 kilometers; via Gansu-Tibet railway, it will be 4,022 and 4,396 kilometers; via Sichuan-Tibet railway, it will be 4,063 and 4,366 kilometers; and via Yunnan-Tibet railway, it will be 5,204 and 5,089 kilometers.
    Compared with other routes, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will be 730 kilometers to 1,150 kilometers shorter. So it will be the shortest way from the Tibet Autonomous Region to the inland and East China coastal areas. A comparative feasibility study indicated that in consideration of China’s technological and engineering level and financial strength, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway enjoys unique advantages in terms of railway length, total length and density of bridges and tunnels, project schedule and engineering conditions.
    What  will you see through the  window of the train running on Qinghai-Tibet Railway?
    The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as “the roof of the world”, is the most charming place in the world, which has attracted the attention of the tourists from all over the world. After railway is built, people will find it much easier to enter this mysterious land.
    Due to the limited transport capacity, the travel expense to Tibet has been very high. A discounted round-trip plane ticket will cost more than 4,000 yuan. Plus other costs, a Chinese tourist will spend more joining a group tour to Tibet than taking a trip abroad. The new railway will offer a fast (140 kilometers per hour), safe and all-climate transport route. It will have fewer station intervals (50 kilometers between stations) and thus employ fewer maintenance staff. Experts estimate that the round-trip cost between Xining and Lhasa will be about 800 yuan.
    Statistics show that in 1999, 450,000 people traveled in Tibet. But in 2010, the number will rise to 1.13 million. By that time, passengers will see the miraculous natural and cultural scenes on the way starting from Xining:
    Qinghai Lake – China’s largest salt lake and 32-kilometer-long Charhan Salt Bridge Sun and Moon Mountain - the boundary line between the plateau and the inland. This was the way that China’s Wencheng Princess of the Tang Dynasty, who married the king of Tubo Kingdom, passed when she entered Tibet 1,500 years ago;
    Entering the Qaidam Basin, you will see a bealock of 4,800-meter weathered volcano and the “first city on the plateau” - Golmud - and Wild Ox Gully;
    Going southward along the Golmud River, the train will go into the Kunlun and Tanggula Mountains. At the foot of Tanggula Mountains, you will see the source of the Yangtze River - Tuotuo River Ñ and the people living there;
    Then the train will go across the unpopulated Kekexili area where you will see the most representative wild animals - antelopes, which are battling the harsh conditions for survival;
    The bealock of Tanggula Mountains at 5,231 meters is the border of Qinghai and Tibet. There is a “No. 1 Railway Maintenance Station in China” and the highest military depot in the world;
    Anduo, the northernmost town in Tibet; and the source of Nujiang River, Cuona Lake;
    Horse Race Festival at Nagqu in northern Tibet draws thousands of tourists, who must also visit Xiaodeng Temple at Qiangtang;
    At Dangxiong, you will see the endless Nianqing Tanggula Mountains. Under the holy mountain is the heavenly lake - Namcu - like an emerald inserted on the top of the mountain. This was where the holy fire of the Asian Games was ignited. At Yangbajing is the largest geothermal spring and geothermal power station in Tibet;
    After passing Duilong Deqing, the largest county in Tibet, the train will get to Lhasa, capital of Tibet.
    By 2007, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will wind like a dragon through the grassland, rivers, mountains and clouds on the roof of the world. The train, running at a speed of 140 kilometers per hour, will spend only 12 hours to reach Lhasa from Golmud. It will only take about 20 hours to travel from Lanzhou to Tibet. From Beijing to Lhasa, only 50 hours. People’s long dream of enjoying the snow-capped plateau will come true.
About the author:
    Cheng Weidong: Famous photographer, held the post of the member of review committee of China’s press photographer for five years successively, went to Tibet for 17 times since 1987, traveled all over Tibet. Now he is the chief reporter of “Ethnic Group Pictorial”