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Thread ID: 70270	2006-06-27 10:07:00	Chinese Rail to Tibet	MTLance (6768)	PC World Chat

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466683	2006-06-27 10:07:00	China's railway line drives towards TibetThe Age[Saturday, October 01, 2005 21:54]By Hamish McDonald www.phayul.com (www.phayul.com)Political line … train attendants stand guard. Photo: AFPKunlun Pass - RIDING in a luxury railcar fitted with oxygen bottles and the comforts of sleeping berths, armchairs and television, China's communist leaders are turning up to survey their boldest engineering work, a railway into Tibet. Visibly wheezing in the thin air, one senior communist and his wife descended from the pale-blue-and-white railcar at the 4767-metre-high pass through Tibet's fabled Kunlun Mountains to look at a flag-bedecked stone marker built for the traders and pilgrims who once walked or rode their ponies between the surrounding peaks and glaciers. With two doctors in white coats, several policemen and two young female railway attendants assisting, they tottered back up a stepladder into the railcar and trundled on to the line's next wonder, a long viaduct at Tuotuohe that crosses the headwaters of China's mightiest river, the Yangtze. Nine months from now, the railway line will be finished, running 1142 kilometres from the present Chinese railhead at Golmud in Qinghai province to the Tibetan capital Lhasa, with all but 180 kilometres of the track at or above an altitude of 4000 metres, and 5072 metres at the highest point. AdvertisementAdvertisement The economics of the 30 billion yuan ($A5 billion) railway are not a great concern of China's leaders. As construction got under way four years ago, former president and party chief Jiang Zemin said he had been advised by some people it was not commercially viable. He had replied: "This is a political decision." The line is certainly strategic. It will replace many of the long truck convoys strung out along perilous roads that take arms, oil, coal and food to the huge military force along Tibet's border with India, as well as the garrisons of soldiers and armed police in the interior to suppress pro-independence activity among the 2 million Tibetans. Golmud, a drab town set amid salt lakes just north of the biggest mountain barriers, has "30 regiments" of troops stationed there, mostly involved in transporting supplies into Tibet, according to Golmud Mayor Du Jie. www.phayul.com (www.phayul.com)Top of the world: the mountains make a dramatic backdrop for the Lhasa River Bridge on the outskirts of Lhasa, for the Qinghai-Tibet railway line. Photo: AFPAs well as tying Tibet closer to the Chinese centre in a strategic sense, the line will unleash a new tide of tourists, traders and perhaps ethnic Chinese settlers who currently have to take either expensive flights to Lhasa or boneshaking bus rides from Qinghai or Sichuan. The Canadian aerospace and rail company Bombardier and its Chinese partners are building special pressurised carriages that will take passengers from the Qinghai capital Xining to Lhasa in 24 hours, replacing a journey that now takes about three days by ordinary train to Golmud and the rest of the way by bus. China has ordered 371 of these carriages, suggesting several passenger trains a day will run in each direction. Supporters of Tibetan rights are hostile to the project, fearing it will lead to Tibetans becoming outnumbered in their heartland as they are now in Qinghai, once a Tibetan region called Amdo. They point out that the railway's $5 billion cost is more than total spending on health and education in Tibet since the People's Republic of China took control more than 50 years ago. Still, the exiled Dalai Lama said recently the railway was one of the tangible economic benefits of being in China, if only religion and culture could be protected. Naasu, a Tibetan woman who has run a souvenir shop in Golmud for eight years, looks forward to using the railway for trips back to Lhasa. "The bus trip is very long and dangerous. There are many accidents on the road," s he said. Environmentalists see danger in the long section of track laid across permafrost (perpetually frozen ground) that could soften under the effect of global warming that is accelerating the shrinking of glaciers all over the Tibetan plateau. Chinese officials such as Qinghai Vice-Governor Su Sen say environmental concerns have been carefully considered in construction planning. "For example, we have built special crossing points for wild species like the Tibetan antelope," he said. From the highway up to the Kunlun Pass, which weaves alongside and under the rail line, travellers can see elaborate measures to stabilise the rail-bed and provide safe crossings for humans and animals. Concrete lattice-work or rock surfaces covered embankments, which were also fitted with concrete-lined underpasses and culverts. Up to 20,000 workers at a time have laboured in the cold and thin air to build the line. "But not a single worker has died of altitude sickness in constructing this railway," said Golmud Mayor Du, echoing the official line. Li Long, who came from distant Harbin to work on the railway, said it had been dangerous. "There most definitely have been some deaths due to the altitude, but quite few, maybe one in 10,000," he said. "But there have been many deaths from road accidents and trucks rolling off the road." In Golmud, the effect of a construction boom that has seen the population grow in a decade from 80,000 to 270,000 is starting to wear off. Wang Jiwei, a former farmer in the central province of Henan, answered Beijing's call to "go west" two years ago. He set up a clothing stall in a Golmud market. "So many other people are moving into these western areas of China there is tough competition," he said. "Business is not very good here, but it's even worse back in Henan." Zhang Quanguo, from Gansu province, made "good money" — 2000 to 3000 yuan ($A325 to $A488) a month — working as a driver on the railway until his legs seized with arthritis. Now he runs the Good Luck Shop by the highway at 3700 metres elevation, selling cigarettes and soap to drivers. "Business is not as good as it was last year, as the construction has moved further down into Tibet," he said. "I'll probably pack up and go home next year." Truck driver Mao Quanjun, driving a load of hardware on a week-long delivery from his home in Sichuan to Lhasa, stopped at Kunlun Pass to check his load and cup hands in a quick prayer at the pilgrims' marker. "Our business will decline because of the railway," he said. Golmud Mayor Du is unfazed by suggestions the railway will lead to his town, which lists a tour of its salt extraction works as its major tourist attraction, being bypassed by cargo and passengers now forced to transfer there. "It will bring new development opportunities and greatly facilitate the development of the city," he insisted. www.phayul.com Damn nice, train. I heard the interior is pretty good but not that cheap. It's a real long journey to Tibet.	MTLance (6768)
466684	2006-06-27 10:26:00	More information here World's highest railway stirs national pridewww.chinaview.cn 2006-06-23 08:46:10 BEIJING, June 23 -- From the outside it looks like any other passenger train in China. It's painted that standard green, has 16 carriages, one driver and two backup drivers. However this train is far from run-of-the-mill. The interior is more impressive, but it's the route that makes it stand out. The train will run up to 120 kilometres per hour on the Roof of the World. Official service on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway from Golmud, the second-largest city in Northwest China's Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region starts on July 1. But trial runs, such as one earlier this month, are necessary to make sure everything goes smoothly. Of the new 1,110-kilometre stretch of track, 86 per cent is at least 4,000 metres above sea level. At its apex, the route winds through the towering Tanggula Mountain Pass, which at 5,072 metres makes the new line the highest railway in the world 255 metres higher than the previous record-holder, a route running through the Peruvian Andes. So, the first rail link between Tibet and the rest of China is also a matter of national pride. Because of the thinness of the air on the route and the potential for altitude sickness, officials have taken extra precautions to help passengers enjoy the ride and keep health concerns to a minimum. Early reports had speculated that trains would need to be pressurized like aircraft, since air at 4,000 to 5,000 metres usually contains around half as much oxygen as air at sea level. But that was impossible, officials reasoned not only will the train pick up and drop off passengers at stations along the route, but the conductor will organize time for passengers to disembark for a better view of the scenery and wildlife. Among the precautions, each carriage has an oxygen-generating cabinet. The oxygen is fed into two systems. One is like central air conditioning, ventilating each cabin. The other is an "emergency oxygen supply" system, with each passenger having access to a special socket, whether near the windows, under the seat or at the bedside. It is the system's constant hum that reassures passengers the air is still OK. Perhaps even more comforting is the news that at least one doctor will travel on each train when regular service starts, said Zhao Shiyun, chief engineer of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Construction Headquarters in Xining, Qinghai's capital. For the passengers' sake One of the first things passengers boarding the train will notice is the accommodation made to Tibetan language and culture. Although the number of attendants on board seemed not to have surpassed that on normal trains, each of them had attended training sessions on Tibetan language and ethnic traditions and, for the sake of foreigners who will certainly take this trip, crash courses in English, as well, said Jiang Xiaodan, one of the dining car attendants. Even the attendants each had to pass a physical exam to be selected for this route. "Before I was selected to come here, I worked on a Beijing-Guangzhou train," Jiang said. "The checkups measured the respiratory system, and some of them failed, but I didn't. I really enjoy working here on the plateau." The carriages themselves seem more spacious than those in other Chinese trains, and for good reason: Made by a Sino-Canadian joint venture, Bombardier Sifang Power Transportation Ltd (BSP), each carriage offers hard seats contains only 98 of them, compared with 108 in a standard hard-seat carriage. Signs and high-tech screens display weather and altitude information as well as the names of upcoming stations in Tibetan, Chinese and English. All the sliding doors were decorated with traditional Tibetan designs. And passenger comfort is one of the goals of the train's designers. The conductor, whose surname is Zhang, said: "The soft seats are exactly the same as those on a plane easy to adjust to avoid sore backs and necks. And the windows are larger, and the glass is treated to screen out ultraviolet rays." The soft sleepers feature various gadgets including a VCD player, a TV and an attendant call system. Passengers can also recharge their mobile phones or notebook computers using available power sockets. For the environmentally conscious, the train has vacuum toilets and sewage collecting tanks and solid waste compressors that use ultraviolet rays to disinfect features lacking on most other Chinese trains, though a new regulation has attempted to improve that situation. There is a bathroom for the handicapped. A safe but green railway Ever since the railway's construction began from June 2001, conservationists have raised concerns about the fragility of the region's ecology and wildlife. At least 100 volunteers drafted by the Hol Xil (Kekexili) National Nature Reserve Management Bureau in Qinghai had disseminated environmental and wildlife protection information among construction workers since 2002, according to Yang Zhen, a Beijing resident who had volunteered on the plateau five times. These volunteers sometimes helped collect the everyday rubbish and made sure builders did not pitch their makeshift tents just anywhere on the grassland. Environmental protection was listed as a top priority for railway contractors since the beginning, and adherence to the rules was sometimes difficult. Dai Lixu, an official with the China Railway Wuju Group Corp, which was contracted to build a 34-kilometre section of track between Damshung and Wumatang, east of Lhasa, said workers had been required to replant any and all vegetation that was destroyed during construction. Contractors also have to be conscious of where wild animals, such as the Tibetan antelope, might migrate, with the hope that construction will not interfere. Bridges rather than causeways were built when the railway traversed wetlands. Some experts say that once the railway operates regularly, the number of lorries will be lower on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, which was built half a century ago to transport nearly 85 per cent of the goods that go to Tibet. Three-fourths of the 2.8 million tons of cargo expected to be transported annually to and from Tibet by 2010 would be carried by trains rather than by trucks, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in a research report earlier this year. That means vehicle exhaust on the world's roof is expected to be reduced. Time to eat As it takes about 12 hours to make the trip from Golmud to Lhasa, passengers will generally take more than one meal aboard the train. Railway officials even planned to make eating pleasurable. The dining car seats 44 people at a time and has six chefs or assistant chefs all male and six servers all female. The car also has a mini-bar, but attendants recommend avoiding alcohol at such high altitudes. The menu offers both Tibetan and Chinese dishes with fish and meats along with vegetables and rice. Some of it is pre-cooked and reheated when the customer orders it. The waiting for the food allows passengers a chance to relax and enjoy the scenery through the carriage's large windows, which makes for a sumptuous appetizer: Yaks dotted the mountains, wild donkeys ran alongside the train, and lakes glistened like pearls in sunlight. One meal also allowed diners to witness a full view of weather changes along the way: At one moment, it is balmy spring, with little tufts of red flowers all over; at another moment, it is biting winter, with snowflakes and even sleet battering the windows. Aside from the usual challenge of cooking aboard a train, this route poses one particular problem for chef Zhou Quanwen. "We have to use pressure cookers in high-altitude areas," said Zhou, 40. "Otherwise, you get half-cooked rice." As for foreign palates, "We won't have Western food right away," Zhou said, "but it is certainly something we'll consider in the future." Destination: Lhasa Since construction of the Lhasa Railway Station, the southern terminus of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, was not completed until June 20, the trial trains ended their voyage at the West Lhasa Station about 30 kilometres away. Sitting near the southern bank of the Lhasa River, the Lhasa Railway Station is almost within walking distance of the famous Potala Palace. The two-storey structure is a traditional Tibetan building. It is either painted red, yellow and white or constructed with materials that are naturally so coloured, according to Zhang Qiang, a worker with the China Railway Construction Engineering Group, which is building the station. "The use of coloured cement is one of three things that make this station special," Zhang said. "Our wood beams in the main waiting hall are also reinforced with steel, and the VIP waiting rooms use gold leaf on the ceilings. This is rare among railway stations in China." From the square of the railway station, where various building materials were still strewn, a white bridge crossing the Lhasa River only 5 kilometres away from downtown Lhasa, looks eye-catching against the backdrop of the grey mountain slopes. When the route from Golmud does end at the Lhasa station, the train will howl out of a tunnel only tens of metres from the grand bridge, hurl itself onto it and blow its whistle, trumpeting its arrival at the terminal, safe and sound. Thus ends the train ride, and yet although they've reached their destination, the passengers find instead that it is just the beginning of a trek to a mysterious land. (Source: China Daily)	MTLance (6768)
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