In every journey, the most important thing is to properly build crossings. First, because it is the lion's share of the cost of the entire tour. Secondly, the success of the trip and the overall impression often depend on where and on what you go to Tibet.

I am engaged in the reception of Russian-speaking tourists in Tibet. Due to the peculiarities of my work, I travel a lot, I can tell you all the pros and cons of different ways to get to the Roof of the World, both on my own experience and on the experience of hundreds of tourists who come to Tibet every month.

In this short essay, I will share my experience of arriving in Tibet by train through Xining (Qinghai Province, China).

I will say right away, if it weren’t for work, I myself would never have gone like that. But every year there are travelers (it’s hard to say on what basis) who seriously believe that this is a great way to visit Tibet, they say, “gradual acclimatization” and so on. By the way, those who come to Tibet from Nepal by car think the same way, then they suffer from mountain sickness the whole trip.

Objectively, there are two pluses of arrival in Tibet on the route Beijing-Xining air, Xining-Lhasa railway:

1. small savings compared to Beijing-Lhasa air,

2. risk reduction with the purchase of railway tickets compared to the Beijing-Lhasa railway.

What is the difficulty of arriving in Tibet by train?

Railway tickets for trains entering Tibet are always in short supply. Why? There is only one railway line connecting Tibet with the outside world. This is the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. All passing trains (Beijing-Lhasa, Shanghai-Lhasa, Guangzhou-Lhasa, Chengdu-Lhasa) gather in Xining. These are trains that run once a day or once every two days. During the tourist season, they are always filled with passengers already at the point of departure. Even at the point of departure, getting tickets for these trains becomes a problem if the travel time falls between the end of April and the end of October, as well as on Chinese public holidays. At this time, there are simply no compartment tickets and reserved seats at the box office, even more so on the Internet. All of them are first withdrawn from sale by the state, because this is an important strategic line. Further, through relations with the heads of the stations, the tickets partially fall into the hands of professional resellers. And from them, through connections again (since such activities are illegal and punishable), tickets sometimes get to simpler speculators, and then to travel agencies and customers. That is why in China, in addition to the cost of the ticket itself, which is indicated on it, there is also the cost of services for buying a ticket. At the height of the tourist season (July, August, September and holidays), the cost of services may equal, and sometimes even exceed the cost of the ticket itself. Therefore, in summer, groups traveling to Tibet from China are advised to fly by plane: fewer problems, faster, easier acclimatization and not much more expensive than a train, which takes two days to get there.

The second difficulty of arriving in Tibet by train is acclimatization. This applies to all trains to Tibet, since they all pass through Xining and on the same Qinghai-Tibet railway call in Lhasa in Tibet. Why is acclimatization worse on the train? Because the body begins to feel the height and adapt to it, overcoming 3000 meters above sea level, and everything up to 3000 is felt like sea level, there is no difference. Arriving by plane in Lhasa, you get to a height of 3650 meters, and calmly acclimatize for one night. By following the basic safety rules on the first evening (move a little, do not drink alcohol, smoke less and do not take a shower), you will easily acclimatize and in the morning you will already feel like at sea level. On the train, it's different. Firstly, the train on the second night, when you are already pretty tired from the road, overcomes an altitude of 5200 meters above sea level, passing the Tangula pass. This is a serious test for any organism, even for people who have lived in the mountains for many years or have experience traveling to the highlands. Secondly, oxygen is supplied to the train, which prevents the body from adjusting to the altitude naturally. If you immediately “sit down” on oxygen, then upon arrival in Lhasa it will also be required, and without it your head will hurt and all the symptoms of altitude sickness will be yours. Thirdly, the train has only a few stops, there is no way to get out, get some fresh air. Fourthly, in trains that go for two days there is still a nurse who has nothing good in the first-aid kit except green stuff. And there are no doctors on overnight trains. Often there are health problems and the conductors run around the cars in search of any doctors among the passengers.

I had a funny case, in my permit to enter Tibet it was written that I am a doctor, but this is not so, I do not have medical knowledge to provide assistance. So, at night on the Xining-Lhasa train, the conductor wakes me up: “Girl, girl, are you a doctor?” I remember through a dream that it is written in the permit, I quickly react that since it is written, I must say “yes”, suddenly she checks me (which also happens). "Doctor," I say. - "Urgently, there in another car the child was burned with boiling water, help!" - .... child, boiling water .... no, I can’t help in such cases, I decide, and answer: “Sorry, I can’t treat such problems,” and I sleep on. After about 20 minutes, eight people come to me in a compartment, with a crying child in their arms, the poor child's skin is all opened, he yells, well, how can I help, there is no doctor on the train !!! A frightened Uyghur mother begs me to help them... Called himself a load - climb into the back. I had to say that I am a psychologist, and I don’t understand such matters ... Neighbors in the carriage began to give people’s advice: apply cucumber and the like, but in fact the situation with the burn was already at a stage when specialist help was required, therefore my conscience is clear because I did not give popular advice, the only thing to do in such cases is to survive the night, wait for the next day, get off the train and run to the hospital in Lhasa.

So, about the trip from Xining to Tibet

There are only 6 flights a day from Beijing to Xining. The planes are small Boeing 737s. The most suitable flight is, of course, the earliest, so as not to spend the night in Xining. Arriving on the earliest flight from the airport, you can immediately go to the railway station and in the afternoon take the Xining-Lhasa train. Xining Airport, despite the fact that it is a large transport hub, is very small. If you fly to Xining, you will be met at the airport with a sign. Greeters stand immediately after the baggage claim area. There are no Russian-speaking guides in Xining, so an English-speaking person will meet you here. You should not hope for the level of English here. Still, Xining is far behind, for example, Beijing or Lhasa in terms of the development of tourist services.

If you are planning excursions in Qinghai (Taer Monastery (Kumbum) or Qinghai Lake), then you can fly on any Beijing-Lhasa flight, check into a hotel in Xining and travel around Xining.

If you want to go to Tibet right away, then after arriving Beijing-Xining on the earliest flight from the airport, you must immediately go to the railway station. Train Xining (Lanzhou) - Lhasa number 917 leaves at 15-04. If other trains. Tickets stop being issued 3 hours before the train departure. Therefore, for example, if you are traveling on your own and decide to resolve the issue of your train tickets yourself, say, you have tickets issued via the Internet, then they must be received at the box office before 12 noon. And for this you always have to defend a giant queue, present a permit to Tibet and original passports. If you use the services of a travel agency, we will do everything for you without your original passport. In Xining, we have direct connections with professional railway ticket dealers. Often they work wonders. But they, too, are powerless when political restrictions come into play.

It happens that tickets are ordered and paid for, but they never went on sale, and the trains will go empty (!), but the tickets will not be on sale! You may never understand the real reasons for this situation. Why? For example, one of these days, in some village, a provocative action will take place, in which the national minorities of the PRC (Tibetans, Uighurs, etc.) will take part. In such cases, the government often restricts entry into problem areas. Tibet suffers constantly from this! For example, when I was traveling on the Xining-Lhasa train in April 2012, according to rumors (and usually they are rumors, they will never say this in the news), in the village of Yushu "something like this happened." So for 5 days after our arrival, Xining-Lhasa tickets were not on sale, and the trains were half empty.

Here I would like to explain to travelers why train tickets in China, especially for trains to Tibet, are always problematic, and until the last moment tickets are not issued to tourists. In China, this is exactly the situation with train tickets. Therefore, do not torture yourself with the questions “why?”, “But it’s not like that with us ...”. This is a feature of China, if you choose to travel by train, there is always a risk of problems with check-in. If you do not want these problems, it is better to fly by plane, there are no such problems with air tickets!

I especially appeal to pilgrims and tourists to Mount Kailash. The journey is not easy, it will require physical and moral strength from you. If the budget does not allow you to fly by plane to Tibet and back, then choose this option: to Tibet by air, from Tibet by train. That way you don't arrive in Tibet tired of the train, don't damage your acclimatization, and train tickets for trains leaving Tibet are always easier to get than for trains entering Tibet.

Not for the first time, the Chinese surprise the whole world with their bold technical solutions. Railway in
the highlands of China is fully such a project.
Pressurized cars, individual oxygen masks for each passenger, specially designed locomotives, endless overpasses on permafrost, dozens of deserted stations against the backdrop of snow-capped mountain peaks - all this is the unique Qinghai-Tibet railway.

In just five years and three and a half billion dollars, China built a 1,150-kilometer highway connecting the "Roof of the World" with the main territory of the country.

Back in the early 1920s, the revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, in his programmatic “Plan for the Reconstruction of China,” proposed building about 100,000 kilometers of new railways in the country, including lines on the Tibetan Plateau. For objective reasons, the idea of ​​the “father of the nation” could only be returned to in the 1950s under Chairman Mao. The railway project to the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, was approved by 1960, but its construction was frozen for almost a decade and a half - China hardly reaped the benefits of the Great Leap Forward.

Only in 1974, the construction of the first section of the future highway, from the capital of Qinghai Province, the city of Xining to Golmud, already on the Tibetan Plateau, was resumed. 814 kilometers of the railway were built by the army and prisoners in five years, by 1979, but passenger traffic was opened here only in 1984.

Work on the second, high-mountain, section to Lhasa was associated with engineering challenges of particular complexity: the builders had to work in conditions of permafrost, lack of oxygen, and, moreover, the unique Tibetan ecosystem, the preservation of which was declared a matter of paramount importance by the Chinese party and government.

It was only at the beginning of the 21st century that the country reached a level of technological readiness that made it possible to start implementing a large-scale infrastructure project. Moreover, the construction of the railway to Lhasa has become a key stage in the development program of Western China, the purpose of which is to eliminate the disproportion in the development of the eastern and western regions of the country. Another important, and perhaps the main, task of the PRC government was to strengthen the ties of the Tibetan autonomy, control over which was re-established only in 1950, with the main Chinese territory.

According to the project, approved in 2000 by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, the total length of the new railway was to be 1,142 kilometers. 45 stations were organized on this section, 38 of which were automatic, without attendants. The Tibetan highway from Golmud rose from a height of 2800 meters above sea level to the Tang-La pass (5072 meters) and then again descended to Lhasa (3642 meters).

Golmud Station.

Final terminal in Lhasa.

About 80% of the entire new section (960 kilometers) passed through difficult high-mountainous regions at an altitude of over 4000 meters above sea level, of which about 550 kilometers were located in the permafrost zone.

Building a railroad there presented a major engineering challenge. The fact is that the upper layer of permafrost tends to thaw in a short summer period, sometimes turning into an impenetrable swamp. In this regard, soil movements posed a real threat, which could lead to deformation and destruction of the track. In order to eliminate such a risk, the designers of the Qinghai-Tibet road developed a special scheme for its construction, which actually isolates any impact of the highway on the environment and vice versa.

The rails were laid on a special embankment of cobblestones covered with a layer of sand. In a transverse projection, the embankment was perforated with a through network of pipes to ensure its better ventilation, and its slopes were covered with special metal sheets that reflect sunlight and thereby further prevent its heating. In some areas, wells filled with liquid nitrogen were also arranged. All these measures actually froze the embankment under the road, preventing the heating of the upper layer of permafrost, its thawing and subsequent deformation of the railway track.

To compensate for elevation differences in the construction areas, a significant part of the highway was laid along flyovers. In total, 675 bridges were built on its 1142 kilometers, with a total length of 160 kilometers. The supports of these overpasses are essentially piles, the foundations of which rest deep in permafrost, due to which seasonal thawing of its upper layer does not have any effect on the stability of the structure structure. The gaps between the supports-columns do not prevent the free circulation of air under them, which allows minimizing the additional thermal effect from the railway.

In addition to the technical component, an important advantage of the overpass sections is the fact that they do not interfere with the free movement under the highway of sometimes unique representatives of the local fauna. The negative effect of foreign inclusion in the Tibetan ecosystem is thus reduced to a minimum.

Sections of the Qinghai-Tibet road, laid on an embankment on the surface of the earth, are fenced along their entire length, and special tunnels and bridges are regularly built for the passage of migratory animals.

After the completion of construction, the Tibetan Highway set several railway construction records at once. 350 kilometers from Golmud, at an altitude of 4900 meters above sea level, the highest mountain railway tunnel in the world was built, called Fenghuoshan (Wind Volcano Tunnel).

The Tang-La station on the mountain pass of the same name became the highest mountain railway station in the world. The mountains surrounding it seem more like hills, but this is a deceptive impression. In fact, the three-track Tang La is located at an altitude of 5068 meters, only four meters below the highest point of the entire highway (5072 meters).

Although trains stop here, in fact it is just a siding on a single-track highway. The station is fully automatic and is controlled from Xining, where the central office of the whole road is located. There are no settlements nearby, which, however, did not prevent the Chinese from building a rather large station here, worthy of a record-breaking station.

In most cases, the doors of the carriages do not even open here. For an unprepared person to be at such a height, where the pressure of the atmosphere is only about 35-40% of the standard at sea level, poses a certain threat to health.

In order to make traveling through the highlands with their stunning landscapes a pleasure for passengers, a special rolling stock has been developed for the Qinghai-Tibet road. The American corporation General Electric designed NJ2 diesel locomotives for the line, modified for operation in high-altitude conditions, with a capacity of 5100 hp. with. everyone. Locomotives are capable of speeds up to 120 km/h with a train of 15 cars. In permafrost zones, their speed is limited to 100 km/h.

The wagons for the maintenance of the road were built at the Chinese plant of the Canadian concern Bombardier in the amount of 361 pieces (308 ordinary and 53 special tourist cars). All of them are actually hermetically isolated from the environment, the oxygen pressure is maintained inside, close to the standard.

Despite this, attacks of altitude sickness caused by a lack of oxygen occurred among passengers. To prevent them, each seat in the carriages is equipped with individual oxygen tubes, similar to hospital ones. Tinted windows of cars with a special coating protect passengers from excessive solar radiation, again characteristic of the highlands.

Standard cars are divided into three classes familiar to us: seated, reserved seat and compartment. In addition, there are dining cars on the trains.

Construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway began in 2001. About 20,000 workers who simultaneously began laying the highway from both endpoints (Golmud and Lhasa) completed the party's demanding task in just five years, spending $3.68 billion. According to official figures, no one died, even despite long-term work in not the most comfortable conditions for this.

The throughput capacity of the line is eight pairs of passenger trains per day (excluding freight trains). Currently, Lhasa is connected by regular passenger traffic not only with the neighboring "regional" center of Xining, but also with the country's largest cities - Beijing and Shanghai. The Beijing - Lhasa express train takes 44 hours. The cost of tickets, depending on the class, ranges from $125 (reserved seat) to $200 (compartment).

Over the seven years of operation, more than 63 million passengers and 300 million tons of cargo have been transported along the road. Annual passenger traffic increased from 6.5 million people in 2006, when the line was commissioned, to 11 million people in 2012, and annual freight traffic increased from 25 million tons in 2006 to 56 million tons in 2012. It is already clear that the new railway has significantly boosted the economic development of Tibet and the neighboring province of Qinghai.

The cost of delivering goods to Tibet, including energy carriers that are especially valuable in mountainous conditions, has become significantly cheaper. The tourism industry has also received a new impetus to development, although it is still impossible for anyone who wants to leave, for example, to take the Beijing train to Lhasa. To visit Tibet, the Chinese government, as before, requires a special permit, without which you simply will not be put on the train.

Skeptics, on the other hand, consider the Qinghai-Tibet railway to be just another stage in the gradual Chinese colonization of a kind of autonomous region and a locomotive for the development of its natural resources. Geologists have already discovered deposits of copper, lead and zinc in the highlands of Tibet, raw materials badly needed by China's booming industry. Ecologists, of course, fear that the presence of a modern railway in the region will only spur the Chinese government to the speedy development of these deposits, with unpredictable consequences for the fragile ecosystem of the region.

However, so far these are just unsubstantiated fears. On the other hand, it is hard to deny the popularity of the road among the inhabitants of Tibet, who got the opportunity to easily and quickly reach the highly developed eastern regions of the country, and especially among tourists, for whom the highway is a wonderful attraction, created with typical Chinese tenacity, literally turning mountains.

On July 1, a grand opening ceremony of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was held in China. The city of Golmud, Qinghai Province, became the main site of the ceremony dedicated to this event. Listen to the report of our correspondent from Gomud. Chinese President Hu Jintao attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. He said that the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway would go down in construction history.

The total length of the Qihai-Tibet Railway from Xining to Lhasa is 1,956 kilometers, with an average altitude of over 4,000 meters above sea level. Previously, the main means of transport here was the road and airline from the inner cities of China to Tibet.
After the opening of the road, the number of tourists to Tibet will increase rapidly. However, the local government has already developed measures to protect cultural property and nature. Permafrost was one of the most difficult problems during the construction of the Qihai-Tibet railway. Here it stretches for more than 550 kilometers. When laying the Qihai-Tibet railway line, Chinese specialists used the method of laying a special layer of crushed stone between the line and the permafrost layer to prevent it from melting.

The builders of the Qihai-Tibet Railway worked in a harsh climate. The temperature sometimes dropped to minus 45 degrees. The number of days with strong winds was up to 160 days per year. In addition, the lack of oxygen at such an altitude was a serious problem. During the construction, special attention was paid to the conservation of nature. Along the Qinghai-Tibet railway, 33 special passages for wildlife have been created. Wenga Nature Reserve worker said: “We told the railroad builders where the wild animals often pass and advised them to build appropriate passages for the animals. started construction again.

The opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has embodied the dreams and hopes of many people. Religious figure Neda, who has the status of "living Buddha" in the Tibetan Bon religion, expressed his best wishes for this railway in words taken from Buddhist canons. He said, "The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, like a golden dragon, brings people happiness and prosperity. I wish the Tibetan people and all other nationalities of China good luck and happiness, I wish that this railway works for their benefit, that passengers and goods on it have always been safe and prosperous. I wish fruitful work and success to all those who wish to start their own business in Tibet and good luck and prosperity to those who are going to do business in the interior of the country."

The total length of this road, which connects the administrative centers of Qinghai Province and the Tibet Autonomous Region - the cities of Xining and Lhasa - is 1956 kilometers. The length of the newly constructed Golmud-Lhasa section is 1142 kilometers along the Kun-Lun and Tangla mountains. More than 550 kilometers of the route pass in the alpine tundra zone. 960 kilometers are laid at an altitude of over 4000 meters above sea level, while the highest point reaches 5072 meters.

Tangla station has become the highest mountain station in the world: it is located at an altitude of 5068 meters. The Fenghuoshan tunnel, pierced at an altitude of 4,905 meters, is the highest in the world, and the Kun-Lun tunnel, 1,686 meters long, is the longest of those built in the alpine tundra zone, Xinhua reports.

The maximum speed of trains in the alpine tundra zone will be 100 km/h, in other areas up to 120 km/h. Each car is provided with additional oxygen to prevent oxygen starvation. It also provides protection from solar radiation. Information on electronic screens installed in each carriage of the train is transmitted in three languages ​​at once: Chinese, Tibetan and English.

In the initial version of the schedule, three pairs of passenger trains will run on the new road: Beijing - Lhasa, Chongqing - Chengdu - Lhasa, Lanzhou - Xining - Lhasa. The journey from Beijing will take exactly two days. Ticket prices range from 389 to 1262 yuan ($49-158) depending on the class of carriage.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, 1,100 kilometers long, was built in uninhabited and deserted areas. 550 kilometers of this road was built in the permafrost zone of the highlands. The construction of such a railway has not yet been known to either Chinese or world history of railway construction. However, the millionth army of builders, showing an innovative spirit and adhering to a scientific approach, was able to overcome the difficulties of construction and successfully solve the most complex technical problems of construction in permafrost, which are of a global nature.

Frozen soil refers to the various layers of the earth and soil containing pieces of ice. Frozen soil increases in volume during freezing, and in summer, when the ice melts, it decreases in volume. The variable state of such soil leads to the destruction of the railway track, the appearance of cracks on it or buildings. According to Russian data from 1994, in the 70s of the 20th century, during the construction of the second Trans-Siberian Railway, 27.5% of the railway track suffered from various negative soil effects. According to Chinese data from 1990, this figure on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway is 31.7%. Due to the negative effects of frozen soil in the world, trains on such railways can only travel at a speed of no more than 50 kilometers.

The Qinghai-Tibetan Railway passes through the Kunlun and Tangla mountains. The highest point of the road is at an altitude of 5072 meters above sea level. The construction conditions were very difficult - the presence of wetlands, frozen soil, high ground surface temperatures in summer. All these were the most difficult technological difficulties.

Although Canada, Russia and other countries also have frozen soil, but due to the fact that they are located in high latitudes, such soil is more durable and stable. And on the sections of the Qinghai-Tibet railway from Geermu to Lhasa, due to the low latitude and altitude of the terrain, high solar radiation, frozen soil has its own most complex properties. The world's tallest tunnel was built in permafrost. The length of the tunnel is 1338 meters, the railway track was at an altitude of 4905 meters above sea level. From this one can judge how many of the most difficult technical problems were resolved, and in what difficult conditions the construction of this railway took place.

This is the highest mountain railway in the world. "The road to the roof of the world" - Train to the roof of the world. Connects the administrative center of Tibet - the city of Lhasa through Golmud and Xining with the rest of the country's railway network.

The railway to Tibet was planned for a long time. Back in 1958, Mao Tse Tung instructed to consider the possibility of building a railway to the Tibet Autonomous Region, despite the fact that no one then had experience in building railways in such, without exaggeration, extreme conditions.

Work on the first stage of construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railway began in 1960. By 1962, the documentation was fully developed and approved. The construction was carried out by the prisoners - thus the task was carried out to minimize costs. In 1979, a railway track came to Golmud. The construction of the road further into the mountains, although it was approved, but the health complications of construction prisoners associated with oxygen starvation, as well as the fact that a significant part of the road would be laid in permafrost, forced the construction to be stopped.

In the early years, the Xining-Golmud section was used exclusively by the military, and it wasn't until 1984 that it opened to passenger traffic. At this, the construction of the railway to the capital of Tibet stopped for more than 10 years ...

In the second half of the 1990s, the country's government instructed to correct the route of the projected line, as well as to conduct new studies in terms of the economic feasibility of its construction. The result of this was the fact that in February 2001, the Chinese government construction approved the continuation of the construction of the highway, declaring its completion one of the state priorities.

On July 29, 2001, detachments of builders advanced towards each other from two ends, from Lhasa and from Golmud. At the same time, the section of the first stage, Xining-Golmud, underwent a major modernization: a major overhaul of some engineering structures was carried out, the signaling was updated, which made it possible to significantly increase the throughput of the section.

On October 15, 2005, the construction of the railway was completed. Despite the fact that this event was very widely covered in the press, including in the world, for Tibet this did not yet mean that there was a direct connection along the rails with the rest of the world: the builders requested a few more months to run in and debug the line. This went on for another 15 months.

And finally, on July 1, 2006, regular passenger traffic was opened on the entire Qinghai-Tibet highway. The whole journey from Beijing to Lhasa takes 48 hours.

From a technical point of view, the construction of the second stage of the road was extremely difficult. 80% of the road passes at an altitude of more than 4000 meters above sea level, of which 160 kilometers at altitudes of 4000-4500 meters, 780 kilometers at altitudes of 4500-5000 meters and 20 kilometers of the line passes at an altitude of more than 5000 meters.

The highest railway station is Tangula Pass. It is located at an altitude of 5068 meters above sea level. This is the highest railway station in the world. Not far from it, trains pass the highest point of the route - 5072 meters.

The highest railway station - Tangula Pass

There is no town or village near the station. Trains stop here infrequently, while passenger cars always remain closed - passengers are prohibited from entering the platform: after all, at such an altitude, the percentage of oxygen in the air is from 60% to 40% compared to sea level. And a person without special acclimatization and preparation can feel bad at such a height. When the solemn opening ceremony of the highway took place, many journalists needed medical assistance. Medical workers accompany passenger trains today.

Another major problem the builders faced was permafrost. In such conditions, 640 kilometers of the line are located. At the same time, it is worth noting that the permafrost in Tibet is special, high-altitude. It has some differences from the permafrost so familiar to us in the northern latitudes. Nevertheless, Russian engineers were invited to solve the problems that arose during construction, because our country has a lot of experience in building railways in similar geological conditions, primarily during the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. The experience of our engineers during the laying of tunnels also came in handy. The Qinghai-Tibet Highway has the highest mountain tunnel in the world, at an altitude of 4905 meters, and the longest tunnel is more than 3300 meters at an altitude of 4264 meters, 80 kilometers from the final destination - Lhasa.

Often in these places there are storms. In some cases, wind speeds can reach 150 kilometers per hour. Half of the highway is located in a seismically dangerous zone: earthquakes are observed here, with a force of 8 or more points.

Line specifications: the length is 1142 kilometers, 965 kilometers at an altitude of more than 4000 meters, the maximum slopes are 20 thousandths, the minimum curve radii are 600 meters, and the vertical ones are 800 meters. The estimated speed is 100 kilometers per hour. 7 tunnels and 675 bridges, with a total length of almost 160 kilometers. The line is single-track with sidings, not electrified. But at the same time, groundwork has been made for the possible electrification of the line in the future, as well as for an increase in speeds.

Ecology was a separate line of the project implementation. A significant part of the bridges located on the line is made for the unimpeded passage of animals under them. Noise reduction technologies are also used.

Passenger cars were specially designed by Bombardier for the Chinese Railways. The cars are fully sealed, designed for speeds up to 120 km/h. There are three classes in the carriages: seated, reserved seat and deluxe. The inscriptions are duplicated everywhere in Tibetan, Chinese and English. Under each passenger seat there is a connector for connecting an oxygen tube and an oxygen control panel. In the event of a sudden depressurization, individual oxygen masks are automatically folded back. Diesel locomotives for the line were produced in Pennsylvania at the plants of the General Electric concern.

Article source: http://chek-pipinda.livejournal.com/15065.html?thread=24281

The idea to visit Tibet has been on the mind for a long time, and the decisive reason for the realization of the idea was the opportunity to travel on the Qinghai-Tibet railway. Each of the huge army of railway workers sometimes becomes a consumer of the services of their own transport, so it was interesting to look at the overseas miracle - the highest mountain railway in the world.

Even before departure, they sent us travel documents in electronic form: a small (the size of a cigarette pack) pink ticket, from which it was possible (most of the text was typed in Chinese) to understand only the date, time, train number, carriage number, places, departure station and arrival and its cost. You could identify your ticket by the passport number indicated at the bottom left. The tickets themselves should have been issued to us upon arrival, but more on that later.
So, a suitcase, an airport, a plane and a transfer to the Beijing railway station (there are five in total, four of which are named after the parts of the world - southern, northern, eastern and western). Beijing Station is located in the center of the capital, and the huge station square met us not just with the usual bustle of the station, but with a crowd of people through which we squeezed, following the movements of the guide.

He told us to give him our passports and went with them to a small pavilion located in front of the station building itself. At the box office, he stamped the original tickets and returned them to us along with our passports. He told us to keep them firmly in our hands and not lose them. Further, in a crowd of the same passengers, we passed through the turntable, presenting our passport with a ticket to the controller. Almost immediately we find ourselves in the open doors of the station, which can only be entered through the “lighting” of luggage, as in any airport. We put things on the tape, hand luggage goes there too - praise to common sense, you don’t need to take off your shoes and jackets. They check the ticket again, and now we are already in the holy of holies - at the station itself! Here it should be explained that without a ticket it is impossible not only to drive, but also to go to the station, the check is quite serious! The security system operating in China in transport implies that only the "target audience" - passengers - is on the territory of the railway. You arrived and left, or you are waiting for your train, and the rest at the station have nothing to do - they will not let anyone through. Indeed, strict inspectors vigilantly look at the documents. The guide has a special ticket for the accompanying person. For reference: the station can accommodate 8,000 people at the same time, and its architecture has both traditional and modern styles.
Then the next attraction begins - you need to find on the scoreboard (not all information has an English interlinear) the number of your train, next to which the number ... of the waiting room will be indicated. Our hall was on the first floor and turned out to be crowded, there was no question of sitting down, in fact, getting up with things among the passengers was problematic. The guide grouped us around him and told us to follow him. A large hall with a high ceiling literally enveloped us in noise and uproar, to say nothing of the fact that the announcements were useless to our ears. After half an hour of standing, wedged among our own and other people's suitcases, we felt the next shock - everyone who had previously sat and lay there got up from their seats and from the floor. This movement meant the beginning of the passage to the landing platform. And here again - the controller and the turntable, squeezing through which we get into the transition and run after the whole crowd, then down the stairs, go through the tunnel, climb the stairs up - and we are at the goal - here is our train. We find our car, the conductor checks the passports with tickets, and we go to the car.


It turns out that one of us has a ticket in another compartment, and a Chinese grandfather is traveling with us on the top shelf. Our guide is negotiating with him about the possibility of an exchange. The cunning grandfather bargains for the lower shelf, otherwise he does not agree to leave our compartment. And at the same time he pretends not to know that the cost of the lower and upper shelves are different. Well, old age must be respected, and we thank grandfather for his kindness.
The compartment itself in the Chinese train turned out to be akin to ours, the only drawback was the lack of a locker for luggage. The lower shelves did not rise, they had free space, but at the same time, the height from the floor made it difficult to squeeze an average suitcase there. We barely had time to place our luggage when the train started moving, that is, the entire landing procedure was within 20-25 minutes after starting from the waiting room. This is where the Chinese have such a pace, for which we could hardly keep up.
Having come to our senses after such a test, we inspect the compartment and find a large thermos. Soon the conductor comes and takes our tickets (with a magnetic stripe) on paper and issues plastic cards in exchange for them. The formalities have been met, and we can study the car, mastering the territory of the daily passage.

Here is a new discovery: unlike our trains, the compartment car does not have our 9 standard compartments, but 8. Three sinks are equipped in the freed up space, which is very convenient and solves the problem of an ever-occupied toilet on the way. By the way, the toilets located on the side of the working and non-working vestibules are different - one with a high toilet bowl (European type), and the other with a floor, or “genoa bowl” (Asian type).

The most surprising were the wide vestibules and passages from car to car, unlike our narrow and uncomfortable ones. On the non-working side, in addition to the toilet, there are also three sinks.

There is also a conductor's room and a luggage storage room. On the working side of the car there was also a small compartment for the conductor and a boiler in which we filled a thermos with hot water. Along the way, a cart periodically passed with an offer of packaged fruit and hot food from the dining car.

The stop where we had to get off was not the final one, and we were worried not to pass, and in vain. The conductor returned the paper tickets to us half an hour before arrival, taking away the plastic cards. We were not met at the carriage, and we, warned of this, went down from the platform. There is again a ticket check and a guide meeting us, whom we asked what would happen if you did not present a ticket at the exit. The answer was short - you will pay the fare and plus a fine.

A few days later we had a longer journey by rail: we had to travel from the city of Chengdu to Lhasa (the capital of Tibet) along the same famous high mountain road. Travel time is 48 hours.
Stress began already at the station square, which was packed with people, as during the demonstration. The local guide gave us tickets, permits (special permissions to visit Tibet), and wished us a happy journey. Of course, we already had the Beijing experience, but there we were led by a guide, and we hoped that here we would be brought to the carriage and seated, making sure that the Russian tourists had safely departed. The girl did not speak Russian, but chattered in English, and although her speech was quite intelligible, the stupor did not allow her to immediately assess the situation. We started to worry, asking her over and over again how to find our train. Of course, we managed, and it even became a kind of adventure. Here everything was according to the already well-known Beijing scenario - a luggage scanner, ticket checks, an information board, and a search for a waiting room. We had enough time before departure, and fortunately, we even managed to take empty seats. At the back of the waiting room there were peculiar gates with numbers, and next to it was a board indicating which gate the boarding would be through. We identified our gates, at the same time noting a large group of Tibetans who were returning home and singing choral songs with joy.


People were already snaking to the gates located next to ours, according to the time their train was supposed to leave in 10 minutes, but no one was allowed in yet, and everyone was patiently waiting for “sim-sim, open”. After some thought, we decided that we were able to stand for half an hour, but be the first at the entrance and moved closer to the Tibetans. We were launched twenty minutes before departure, and what a steeplechase it was!


Everything cleared up later, the lovely Tibetans had tickets for a common carriage, perhaps without seats, and they were in a hurry to take the best of them so that they could travel in relative comfort for 2 days. In general, as soon as we settled in the compartment, the train started off smoothly.
In addition to the above, this car surprised with LCD monitors at the foot of each bed. However, by the way, the screens did not come to life for the entire journey, and the water in the washbasin was present only in the first half of the day. The Chengdu-Lhasa train is an express train with a maximum speed of 140 km/h. Its distinctive feature is the minimum number of stops, which can be objectively explained by the workload of passengers on the entire route from the initial to the final station. The car is a soft sleeping car, while in the presence of disposable slippers, service in the form of a towel and soap is not provided.
We, of course, read that the train overcomes an altitude of 5000 m above sea level on the road, but the questionnaires given to us were a little shocking. A small piece of paper was a kind of insurance receipt for the railway for each passenger that his decision to take the train to the region of the high mountain plateau is voluntary and conscious, that everything is in order with your health, and you understand that you are doing this at your own peril and risk .

Having signed such a verdict, we fell silent: in fact, we expected that in this way acclimatization would be easier due to the gradual entry into the highlands of Tibet and its capital at an altitude of 3600 m above sea level.
We just overslept the first day of the journey, preparing ourselves for the high-altitude drop. At night I woke up with a headache, looked out the window and gasped - white-white, but they were leaving - it was +25 degrees. Near the compartment of the conductors there is a dashboard, on which the height above sea level is guessed. Still the head would not hurt - 4200!

It immediately becomes clear that we are in the Celestial Empire, and bare statistics confirm that almost 1000 km of the path will pass at this height! Even in the evening they examined a certain box at the head, which turned out to be an individual device for supplying oxygen. The air in Tibet is rarefied, and in order to assist passengers in the fight against the “miner”, oxygen is supplied to the cars (centrally, through air conditioners). His arrival was noticeable even by ear - a kind of hiss. For those who suffer the most, there are individual tubes that can be inserted directly into the nose. It is a pity that there was no clear schedule in the car, and we could not understand when we passed the highest point on the Qinghai-Tibet route at 5200 m above sea level (Tanggula Pass), as well as the highest mountain tunnel in the world - the Fenghuoshan Tunnel ( at 4900 meters) with a length of 1338 meters.
The next morning I met with steppe views outside the window with sparse yellow-green vegetation. The road from Chengdu to Lhasa goes in a loop, initially it is a double track, then turning into a single track.


We are already driving through the permafrost, or cryolithozone, and this has become the biggest problem in the construction of the road. To strengthen the railroad tracks, the top layer of soil, "floating" in the summer, was covered with a large amount of stone and rubble, and many sections were simply raised to the bridges.


It was these bridges that accompanied us all the way, they look especially beautiful when cornering. Then I read on the Internet that Russian experience was used in the construction of this road in permafrost conditions. A deserted landscape and rare buildings float past the windows, we wonder who lives in them and for what purpose they were built here in the steppe.

Next to lonely houses, a solar battery is necessarily arranged, which we unsuccessfully try to photograph. Here it turns out that the windows are tinted with a protective ultraviolet layer to save from the bright light of the sun. This fact does not allow you to take decent photos, but there was something to shoot! The slopes of the railroad tracks are covered with mesh or patterned stones. The high piers of the bridges lift the train above the ground, first hills grow along the way, and then mountains with snow-capped peaks appear. Tunnels appear, there are practically no stops, and it is impossible to determine what is overboard. The head hurts noticeably, but this does not prevent us from having a bite to eat and jumping out into the street when the train did stop. It was the Na Qu station at 4500 m, as indicated by the platform sign. After this station, the views outside the window became amazing, and even enhanced by the emerging sun. Without looking up from the window, forgetting about the headache, we enjoyed the magnificent views of the mountains. Yaks and sheep appear, some birds soar above the ground, a hare jumps across the steppe. In our car, besides us, there are still a trinity of Dutchmen, and we occupy the windows of the corridor, admiring the beauties. After some time, the Chinese also poured out of the compartment, they are “watching the observers”, that is, us, appreciating our enthusiasm with satisfaction. I take my hat off to the labor feat of the Chinese and I am no longer surprised that during the construction of the railway, the animals whose traditional migration routes it crossed were not forgotten. To solve these environmental problems, special passages for animals were arranged.
Exactly on schedule, we arrived at the terminal station of the Qinghai-Tibet railway - in the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, the city of Lhasa.


At the exit from the station - the traditional ticket check, but not only. Without permits, you will not be allowed into the territory of Tibet, here it is strictly with this. The Lhasa station is architecturally designed in a typical Tibetan style, has 5 floors (as it is written on the Internet), but I immediately wondered why such a large building for a station with 6-7 pairs of trains, because in China stations are used strictly functionally, and after arrival trains, this station quickly becomes empty until the next train.

Or maybe built with a perspective? After all, the construction of the railway continues and soon tourists from Lhasa will be able to get not only to Shigatse, but also to the capital of Nepal (Kathmandu), as well as to Indian Calcutta.