The Qinghai-Tibet Railway

On July the 1st, 2006, ceremonies were held simultaneously in Golmud in Qinghai Province and Lhasa in Tibet Autonomous Region, to mark the completion of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

The railway is a massive structure, built at a cost of 33 billion Yuan. It took thousands of workers five years of hard work to complete. The longest and highest railway in the world, this man-made miracle crosses the “roof of the world”, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The railway’s construction was exemplary in more ways than one: For instance, it reflects the green approach to Tibet’s economic development, as well as the vigorous support from the national government for Tibet’s development.

Between the railway’s completion in July 2006 and December of that year, the number of tourists to Tibet, Chinese and foreign, rose to 1.86 million, an increase of 50% from the same period of the previous year. The introduction of the rail service has significantly reduced travel costs, making a visit to mysterious Tibet a realistic possibility for many people.

Tourism is the most obvious industry to have benefited. An estimate by the tourism department of Tibet suggests that up until 2010, around five and a quarter million people will visit Tibet each year, generating revenue of 5.8 billion Yuan.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau boasts numerous attractions for foreign and Chinese visitors. Starting from Xining in Qinghai Province, the railway goes all the way to Lhasa, covering 2,000 kilometers and passing almost all the famous sights along the ancient Tang-dynasty road to Tibet: the Kumbum Monastery, Mt. Sun and Moon, Lake Qinghai, Bird Island, the Kunlun Mountains, Kukushiri, Lake Namtso, the Potala Palace…

The average height of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is over 4000 meters above sea level; hence the name “the roof of the world” and “the earth’s third pole”. The plateau, the highest in the world, exerts a major influence on the ecological state of the whole planet.

The plateau is also known as “Asia’s water tower”, because of all its natural reservoirs formed of water and ice. These ensure a balanced water supply for Asia and the world, and help regulate the climate of the whole planet.

18 nature reserves have been established in Tibet Autonomous Region, accounting for 33.9% of the total area. The reserves protect the plateau’s fragile ecology, and help improve life for the local people in both towns and cities. Tibet’s ecology is essentially unaltered, and its environment is unrivalled as the best preserved in China.

The fund earmarked for environmental protection during the railway’s construction was 1.54 billion Yuan, more than for any railway ever built before.

Special protection measures were enforced for every one of the 11 nature reserves the railway passed through. For instance, in the Kukushiri, Qumar River and Sokya nature reserves, the railway made a detour. After it entered Tibet, the railway made a turn to avoid the Lhundrup-Phanpo Black Neck Crane Nature Reserve and pass instead through Yangbaijain.

The fragility of the ecology proved to be a huge problem for the railway builders. Still, they did everything in their power to preserve the natural wonders by adapting the railway as much as they could to the local ecology.

The railway has many bridges and culverts along its length, which facilitate the unrestricted movement of the ground water in marsh and river source areas.

Between Golmud and the Tanggula Mountains, the railway leaves 33 passages for wild yaks, Tibetan antelopes and other wild animals to pass freely. The passages are in the form of culverts, bridges and gentle roadbeds.

Every summer, thousands of Tibetan antelopes migrate from the east side of the railway to the Sun and Chuoma Lakes on the west. There they give birth to their young, and then bring them back to their habitat. The railway has not broken this cycle, and the Tibetan antelopes are now quite used to the passages.

In the two years since the completion of the railway, statistics show that the antelope population in the area has increased by 20,000.

Tibet has 125 wild animal and 39 plant species on the state protected list.

The numbers of wild animals and plants have increased, the former by 30%. Some very rare species that had not been seen for years, have returned.

Inside each railway car, apart from the oxygen supply facilities, there is toilet with a storage tank for used water.

Very strict rules are enforced concerning the disposal of rubbish and waste along the route. All the carriages are tightly sealed and pressurized, to maintain the appropriate level of oxygen inside and prevent littering.