Special

Train to Lhasa is a wonder

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-01 09:15

I traveled to Tibet, China's most remote and mountainous autonomous region, via the world's highest railway line last June. It impressed me very much.

The writer Paul Theroux once prophesied that the formidable Kunlun Mountain range that divides Tibet from the rest of China would guarantee that a train to Lhasa would never be built.

For decades it was widely accepted that it would be impossible to build a railway to Tibet. There were 5,000-meter-high mountains to climb, 12-kilometer-wide valleys to bridge, hundreds of kilometers of perennial ice and slush that were not expected to support tracks and trains.

But China did it. By June 2006,three years ahead of schedule. Itconfirmed China's status as a technological superpowerwhen the country completed the 1,950-kilometer railway from Xining, capital of Qinghai province, to Lhasa.

China has realized a centennial dream.

Eddy, via e-mail

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