Qingzang railway

The Qingzang railway (also called Qinghai–Xizang railway, or Qinghai–Tibet railway) is a railway line from Xining, Qinghai Province, to Lhasa in Tibet.

The line includes the Tanggula Pass, at 5,072 m (16,640 feet) above sea level the world's highest rail track and Tanggula Railway Station which is the highest railway station. The 1,338 m Fenghuoshan tunnel is the highest rail tunnel in the world, at 4,905 m above sea level. The 3,345-m Yangbajing tunnel is the longest tunnel on the line. It is 4,264 m above sea level, 80 kilometres north-west of Lhasa.

More than 960 km, or over 80% of the Golmud-Lhasa section, is at an altitude of more than 4,000 m. There are 675 bridges, totalling 159.88 km, and over half the length of the railway is laid on permafrost.[1] The railway which was finished in 2006 is said to not help the people of Tibet.[2]

It takes about 3 days to go from Lhasa to Guangzhou or Shanghai.

Qingzang Railway Media

References

  1. Tanggula, Mikes Rail History, accessed August 2009
  2. "Tracking the Steel Dragon: How China's economic policies and the railroad are transforming Tibet". Archived from the original on 2009-10-03. Retrieved 2009-08-09.