The Tibet Railway
When I visited Lhasa the first time in May 2004 I said to my friend that it would surely take another ten years to finish such a high technical project like the Tibet Railway.
Three years later I was sitting myself in this train from Lhasa to Xining.
Opponents of China's Tibet policies claim that the railway was built to strengthen its political control over Tibet. But fact is the project is a mas…
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A look outside the window
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After a short while riding the train you get the imposing expression about Tibets landscape, the snow covered mountains and the desert like unending veld. You can never see enough of the views, beautiful ones.
Salama and Albin inside the compartment
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Each compartment for four passengers. It has oxygen supply and a TV screen with nearly 40 channels, including CNN, BBC, HBO and Deutsche Welle .
Dangxiong 4,293 m, clean and empty railwaystation
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No passenger boarding the train and no one leaving it. The station from Dangxiong village where the train stopped lokked like a ghost station.
The trail on the piles
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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 floor inside along the coach
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Unending foothills in front of the high mountains
Riverbed of Nam Cho
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The Nam Cho river is an affluent of the Yarlung Tsangpo river.When I was doing my "Kora" around the Holy Kailash in Western Tibet the landscape looked like I've seen here.
No one on the highway
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Look out of the window for more than one hour not only one car or bus or people seen outside, just some Yaks graze the green from the spare fields.
Snow just in a bit higher altitude
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The train climbs to the highest moutain pass which was ever build for train tracks on the world. This plateau is at an altitude of ca. 4,200 Meters, the snow line starts 4,400 Meters.
The remain of workers temporary accommodations
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Many of the labourers working and contracting years for the rail way rail still have their homes in simple housings along the railway.
Small pool beside the track
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Tibetan people believe on the sacrilege not to kill animals or human beings. You'll never see fishing people beside rivers and lakes.
Impressive cloud formations
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Sometime I'd the feeling sitting in the IMEX cinema - no - it was much much better!!!
The scenes change every moment every minute, every hour into the next impressive scene.
Near Amdo
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A herd of sheep graze at the other pool side, finding its sparely food on the ground in this high altitude.
Amdo is one of the three traditional states of Tibet. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu River (Yellow River) to the Drichu river (Yangtze River). While culturally and ethnically a Tibetan area, Amdo has been administered by a series of local rulers in recent centuries.
Cuona Lake near Amdo
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Cuona Lake is located within Amdo County, not far away from Amdo Railway Station. It is the nearest lake to the Tibet Railway, with a distance of less than 100 m at the closest point.
Close ride beside the Cuona Lake
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The lake covers an area of about 400 sq km. It is the source lake of Nu River, which is confluence for all the streams and rivers of the southern Tanggula Mountain. Being about 4,650 m above the sea level, the lake is also the highest fresh water lake in the world. Local Tibetans worship it as the 'Holy Lake', every year of dragon on the Tibetan Calendar thousands of pilgrims will trek here to pray for good fortune.
Cuona Lake
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Looking from the train, you'll probably be magnetized when sighting the picturesque Cuona Lake. The lake just looks like a bluish mirror reflecting the surrounding high mountains in the water.
Cuona Lake
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There are also waterfowls playing in the lake and herds of cattle and sheep running in the grassland, which add much lively color to the lake. Just imagine how fascinating the lake would be when being further illuminated by the blue sky, white clouds and extensive grassland.
View out the window to the Cuona Lake
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