Qinghai Tibetan iron. Train Beijing - Lhasa. The highest mountain railway

This is the highest mountain railway in the world. “Road to the roof of the world” - Train to the roof of the world. Connects administrative center Tibet - the city of Lhasa via Golmud and Xining with the rest of the country's railway network.

The railway to Tibet has been planned for a long time. Back in 1958, Mao Zedong ordered 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 phase 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 prisoners - thus fulfilling the task of reducing costs as much as possible. In 1979, a railway track came to Golmud. Although the construction of a road further into the mountains was approved, the health complications of construction prisoners associated with oxygen deprivation, as well as the fact that a significant part of the road would be built in permafrost conditions, forced construction to be stopped.

In the early years, the Xining-Golmud section was used exclusively by the military, and it was only in 1984 that it opened to passenger traffic. At this point, the construction of the railway to the capital of Tibet stopped for more than 10 years...

In the second half of the 90s, the government of the country gave instructions to adjust the route of the designed line, as well as 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 approved the continuation of construction of the highway, declaring its completion one of the state priorities.

On July 29, 2001, from two ends, from Lhasa and from Golmud, detachments of builders moved towards each other. At the same time, the first stage section, Xining-Golmud, underwent major modernization: a major overhaul of some engineering structures, the alarm system was updated, which significantly increased the throughput of the site.

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

And finally, on July 1, 2006, regular passenger traffic opened along the entire Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The entire 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 is Tangula Pass

There is neither a city nor a village near the station. Trains stop here infrequently, but passenger carriages always remain closed - passengers are prohibited from entering the platform: after all, at such an altitude, the percentage of oxygen in the air ranges from 60% to 40% compared to sea level. And a person without special acclimatization and preparation may feel unwell at such an altitude. When the opening ceremony of the highway took place, many journalists asked health care. Medical workers still accompany passenger trains today.

Another serious problem that the builders faced was permafrost. 640 kilometers of line are located in such conditions. 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 northern latitudes. However, Russian engineers were invited to solve problems that arose during construction, because our country has a lot of experience in constructing railways in similar geological conditions, primarily during the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. The experience of our engineers also came in handy during tunnel construction. On the Qinghai-Tibet Highway there is the highest tunnel in the world, at an altitude of 4905 meters, and the most long tunnel- more than 3300 meters at an altitude of 4264 meters, 80 kilometers from the final destination - Lhasa.

Storms often occur in these places. In some cases, wind speeds can reach 150 kilometers per hour. Half of the highway is located in a seismic zone: earthquakes with a magnitude of 8 or more are observed here.

Technical characteristics of the line: length 1142 kilometers, 965 kilometers at an altitude of more than 4000 meters, maximum slopes 20 thousandths, minimum radii of curves 600 meters, vertical - 800 meters. Estimated speed of movement 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, provisions have been made for the possible electrification of the line in the future, as well as for increasing speeds.

A separate line of project implementation was ecology. A significant part of the bridges located on the line are made for the unhindered passage of animals under them. Sound-absorbing technologies are also used.

The passenger cars were specially designed by Bombardier for the Chinese Railways. The cars are completely sealed and designed for speeds of up to 120 km/h. The carriages have three classes: seated, reserved seat and luxury. The inscriptions are duplicated everywhere in Tibetan, Chinese and English languages. 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 General Electric factories.

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

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

The railway to Tibet has been planned for a long time. Back in 1958, Mao Zedong ordered 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 phase of construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway began in 1960. By 1962, the documentation was fully developed and approved. Construction was carried out by prisoners - thus fulfilling the task of reducing costs as much as possible. In 1979, a railway track came to Golmud. Although the construction of a road further into the mountains was approved, health complications for construction prisoners associated with oxygen deprivation, as well as the fact that a significant part of the road would be built in permafrost conditions, forced construction to be stopped.

In the early years, the Xining-Golmud section was used exclusively by the military, and only in 1984 was it opened to passenger traffic. At this point, the construction of the railway to the capital of Tibet stopped for more than 10 years...

In the second half of the 90s, the government of the country gave instructions to adjust the route of the designed line, as well as 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 approved the continuation of construction of the highway, declaring its completion one of the state priorities.

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


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

And finally, on July 1, 2006, regular passenger traffic opened along the entire Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The entire 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.




There is neither a city nor a village near the station. Trains stop here infrequently, while passenger cars always remain closed - passengers are prohibited from going onto the platform: after all, at this altitude, the percentage of oxygen in the air ranges from 60% to 40% compared to sea level. When the opening ceremony of the highway took place, many journalists required medical assistance. Medical workers still accompany passenger trains today.


Another serious problem that the builders faced was permafrost. 640 kilometers of line are located in such conditions. 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 northern latitudes. However, Russian engineers were invited to solve problems that arose during construction, because our country has a lot of experience in constructing railways in similar geological conditions, primarily during the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. The experience of our engineers also came in handy during tunnel construction. On the Qinghai-Tibet Highway there is the highest 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.


Storms often occur in these places. In some cases, wind speeds can reach 150 kilometers per hour. Half of the highway is located in a seismic zone: earthquakes with a magnitude of 8 or more are observed here.

Technical characteristics of the line: length 1142 kilometers, 965 kilometers at an altitude of more than 4000 meters, maximum slopes of 20 thousandths, minimum radii of curves 600 meters, vertical - 800 meters. Estimated speed of movement 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, non-electrified. But at the same time, groundwork has been made for the possible electrification of the line in the future, as well as for increasing speeds.


A separate line of project implementation was ecology. A significant part of the bridges located on the line are made for the unhindered passage of animals under them. Sound-absorbing technologies are also used.


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








Dining car.

The idea of ​​visiting Tibet had been exciting my imagination for a long time, and the decisive reason for the implementation of the idea was the opportunity to travel along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Each of the huge army of railway workers sometimes becomes a consumer of the services of their native transport, so it was interesting to look at the overseas miracle - the highest mountain railway in the world.

Even before we left, they sent us to in electronic format travel documents: 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, seat, departure and arrival station and its cost. You could identify your ticket by the passport number indicated at the bottom left. The tickets themselves should have been given to us upon arrival, but more on that later.
So, suitcase, airport, plane and transfer to Train Station Beijing (there are five in total, four of which are named after parts of the world - southern, northern, eastern and western). Beijing Station is located in the center of the capital, and the huge station square greeted us not just with the usual bustle of a station, but with a crowd of people through which we squeezed, following the movements of the guide.

He ordered us to give him our passports and went with them to a small pavilion located in front of the station building itself. At the ticket window he stamped the original tickets and returned them to us along with our passports. He told us to hold them tightly in our hands and not lose them. Then, in the crowd of the same passengers, we went through the turntable, presenting our passport with ticket to the controller. Almost immediately we find ourselves in the open doors of the station, which can only be entered through luggage screening, as at any airport. We put things on the tape, it goes there too hand luggage– praise be to common sense, you don’t need to take off your shoes and jackets. They check the ticket again, and now we are in the holy of holies - at the station itself! Here it should be explained that without a ticket it is not only impossible to travel, but also to go to the station; the check is quite serious! The transport security system in force in China implies that only the “target audience” – passengers – will be on the railway territory. You arrive and leave, or you are waiting for your train, and the rest of the people at the station have nothing to do - they won’t let anyone through. Indeed, strict inspectors keep a watchful eye on documents. The guide has a special ticket for the person seeing you off. For reference, the station can accommodate 8,000 people at a time, and its architecture has both traditional and modern styles.
Then the next attraction begins - you need to find on the board (not all information has 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 it turned out to be overcrowded, there was no question of sitting down, in fact, getting up with things among the passengers was problematic. The guide grouped us near him and told us to follow him. The large hall with a high ceiling literally enveloped us in noise and din, not to mention that the announcements were useless to our ears. After half an hour of standing, squeezed among our own and other people’s suitcases, we felt the following shock - everyone who had been sitting and lying there before got up from their seats and from the floor. This movement signaled the beginning of passage to the boarding platform. And here again - the controller and the turntable, squeezing through which we find ourselves in the passage and run after the whole crowd, then down the stairs, passing through the tunnel, climbing up the stairs - and we are at the goal - here is our train. We find our carriage, the conductor checks our passports with tickets, and we go into the carriage.


Then it turns out that one of us has a ticket in another compartment, and a Chinese grandfather is traveling with us in the top bunk. Our guide is negotiating with him about the possibility of an exchange. The cunning grandfather bargains for the bottom bunk, otherwise he does not agree to leave our compartment. And at the same time he pretends that he doesn’t know that the cost of the lower and upper shelves is different. Well, old age must be respected, and we thank grandfather for his kindness.
The compartment itself on the Chinese train turned out to be similar to ours, the only downside was the lack of a locker for luggage. The lower shelves did not rise, had free space, but at the same time the height from the floor hardly allowed an average suitcase to be squeezed in there. We barely had time to place our luggage before the train started moving, that is, the entire boarding procedure took place within 20-25 minutes after starting from the waiting room. This is where the Chinese have such a pace, with whom we could barely keep up.
Having come to our senses after such an ordeal, we examine the compartment and find a large thermos. Soon the conductor comes and takes our paper tickets (with magnetic stripe) and gives us plastic cards in exchange. The formalities are completed, and we can study the carriage, mastering the territory of daily travel.

Here is a new discovery: unlike our trains, the compartment car has not our 9 standard compartments, but 8. The freed-up space has three sinks, which is very convenient and solves the problem of an always busy toilet on the way. By the way, the toilets located on the working and non-working vestibules are different - one with a high toilet (European type), and the other with a floor-mounted one, or “Genoa bowl” (Asian type).

The most amazing thing was 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 carriage there was also a small compartment for the conductor and a boiler in which we filled a thermos with hot water. Along the route, a cart periodically passed by offering packaged fruits and hot food from the dining car.

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

A few days later we had a longer journey by rail ahead of us: we had to travel from the city of Chengdu to Lhasa (the capital of Tibet) along that same famous high-mountain road. Travel time is 48 hours.
The stress began already on the station square, which was packed with people, as during a demonstration. The local guide gave us tickets, permits (special permits to visit Tibet), and wished us a safe journey. Of course, we already had Beijing experience, but there we were led by a guide, and we expected that here too we would be taken to the carriage and seated, making sure that Russian tourists departed safely. The girl did not speak Russian, but chattered in English, and although her speech was quite intelligible, her stupor did not allow her to immediately assess the situation. We began 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 - luggage scanner, ticket check, information board, search for a waiting room. We had enough time before departure, and fortunately, we even managed to take free seats. In the depths of the waiting room there were peculiar gate passages with numbers, and next to it there was a board indicating through which gate the boarding would take place. We identified our gate, at the same time noticing a large group of Tibetans who were returning home, singing choral songs with joy.


People were already snaking towards 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 became clear later, the lovely Tibetans had tickets for a general carriage, perhaps without seats, and they were in a hurry to take the best of them in order to travel for 2 days in relative comfort. In general, as soon as we settled into the compartment, the train moved smoothly.
In addition to the above, this carriage surprised with LCD monitors at the foot of each berth. However, by the way, the screens did not come to life during the entire route, and there was water in the washbasin only in the first half of the day. The Chengdu-Lhasa train is an express train with maximum speed at 140 km/h. His distinctive feature– a minimum number of stops, which can be objectively explained by the passenger load on the entire route from the starting station to the final station. The carriage is a soft sleeper, and if you have disposable slippers, there is no service in the form of towels and soap.
We, of course, read that the train along the road overcomes an altitude of 5000 m above sea level, 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, stating that his decision to travel by train to the high-mountain plateau area is voluntary and conscious, that your health is fine, and you understand that you are doing this at your own peril and risk .

Having signed such a verdict, we became quiet: in fact, we hoped 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.
The first day of the journey we simply slept, preparing ourselves for the altitude difference. At night I woke up with a headache, looked out the window and gasped - it was white, white, and when we left it was +25 degrees. Near the conductors' compartment there is a dashboard on which the altitude above sea level can be guessed. If only my head didn’t hurt – 4200!

It immediately becomes clear that we are in the Celestial Empire, and bare statistics confirm that almost 1000 km of the journey will take place at this altitude! In the evening we examined a certain box at the head of the room, which turned out to be an individual device for supplying oxygen. The air in Tibet is thin, and in order to assist passengers in the fight against the “miner”, oxygen is supplied to the carriages (centrally, through air conditioners). His arrival was noticeable even by ear - a sort of hissing. For those especially suffering, there are individual tubes that can be inserted directly into the nose. It’s a pity that the carriage didn’t have a clear schedule, and we couldn’t understand when we passed the highest point on the Qinghai-Tibet Road at 5200 m above sea level (Tangggula Pass), as well as the highest mountain tunnel in the world – the Fenghushan Tunnel ( at 4900 meters) with a length of 1338 meters.
The next morning greeted us 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 turns into a single track.


We are already driving through the permafrost territory, or permafrost zone, and this is what became the biggest problem during the construction of the road. To strengthen the railway track, the top layer of soil, “floating” in the summer, was covered with large amounts of stone and crushed stone, and many sections were simply raised onto bridges.


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

Be sure to install it near lonely houses solar battery, which we are unsuccessfully trying to photograph. It turns out that the windows are tinted with a protective ultraviolet layer to protect them from the bright light of the sun. This fact does not allow us to take decent photographs, but there was plenty to photograph! The slopes of the railway tracks are covered with mesh or patterned stones. High bridge supports lift the train above the ground; first, hills grow along the track, 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 headache is noticeable, but this does not stop us from having a snack and jumping out into the street when the train finally stops. This was the Na Qu station at an altitude of 4500 m, as evidenced by the platform sign. After this station, the views outside the window became stunning, 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 hover above the ground, and a hare gallops across the steppe. In our carriage, besides us, there are three other Dutchmen, and we occupy the corridor windows, admiring the beauty. After some time, the Chinese also poured out of the compartment; they “watch the watchers,” that is, us, appreciating our enthusiasm with satisfaction. I take off my hat to the labor feat of the Chinese and 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 created.
Right on schedule, we arrived at the final station of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway - the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, the city of Lhasa.


At the exit from the station there is a traditional ticket check, but not only that. You will not be allowed into the territory of Tibet without permits, they are strict about this here. 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 empties until the next train.

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

Getting to Tibet is not as easy as it might seem. First you need to get permission. It is given exactly for the time for which you book the tour. You can’t just come to Tibet. Prices for tours are steep. We paid $1800 for 3 days for three people. This is for personal guide, entry permit, train tickets and temple tickets. All. Good hotel– at least another $150 per night per room. You are essentially paying for an entry permit and a guide.

How do the Chinese authorities explain why foreigners need permission to travel to Tibet? It’s very simple: “Tibet is a specific region of China.”

Therefore, the State Council of China (government) decided that

Based folk traditions And cultural heritage;
. according to environmental protection requirements;
. based on traffic characteristics and reception capabilities of tourism infrastructure

Non-Chinese citizens must obtain permission to enter Tibet.

Like this! That is, the point is not at all that you can unfurl the banner “Freedom for Tibet!” and shouting “Dalai Lama for president!” Rather, the whole point is that foreigners are used to shitting everywhere. All the rivers and air of China have been polluted, all the entrances have already been pissed! Therefore, to Tibet - only with permission! This is the last clean piece of land.

By the way, foreign diplomats and journalists are not allowed to travel to Tibet as tourists. They need to get special permission. You can’t go to Tibet without a guide either. You can only enter the region as part of a tourist group (even if you are traveling alone).

To get to Lhasa you need to either fly by plane or go by train. Well, you can still go by car, but it’s generally tough. By the way, if you are a foreigner, then formally you cannot get to Tibet while driving a car, only as a passenger (and, again, a member of a tourist group). Although there were such precedents.

The main problem here is the height. Lhasa is located at an altitude of 3490 meters. The train crosses the Tang La Pass at an altitude of 5072 meters (the highest point of this railway), and many on it die from altitude sickness. There is another problem: to make passengers comfortable, oxygen is supplied to the train. They say that because of this, the body then acclimatizes poorly, since during the day on the train it gets hooked on oxygen. In general, all room experts on the Internet strongly recommend against traveling by train.

But this is the highest mountain railway in the world! How can you miss such a miracle? And we went by train. One more point should be noted here. At the height of the tourist season, it is almost impossible to buy train tickets. We need to get them! You must have a special person who will get you a ticket at the last minute. In the process of getting a ticket, the price may double - of course, all this is unofficial.

The tickets were delivered to us the day before the train departed. So, let's go!

01. Main station Sinina, from here it takes 21 hours by train to Lhasa! The station is approximately the size of Vnukovo Airport.

02. Tickets cannot be purchased online. More precisely, you can buy it, but then you must go to the cashier with your reservation number and documents and pick them up. To get tickets, you must show permission to enter Tibet. In general, the process is approximately the same as when buying train tickets from Moscow to Kaliningrad (however, our travel permission is given not by the Russian authorities, but by the Lithuanian ones).

03. We received tickets in advance. The livery of ordinary carriages is the same as we had during the Union. The carriages themselves are, of course, new.

04. Waiting room at the station. How do you like it? To enter the station, you need to show your tickets, passport and permit. All this will be scanned, then you will be examined and only then you will be allowed into the building. No mourners or greeters have the right to enter the station.

05. Since Xining is the gateway to Tibet, and Tibet is China, at the station all the screens show Comrade Xi Jinping touring the troops. The videos are shown on all screens without stopping, and there is a reason - the 90th anniversary of the PRC army.

06. Time to catch the train! They are allowed onto the platform immediately before departure.

07. The train to Lhasa is additionally decorated. Look how beautiful it is!

08. The train to Lhasa takes 21 hours. There are three classes of carriages: seated, soft sleeper and hard sleeper. Everything is clear when it comes to sitting, the seating arrangement is 3+2.

09. Soft sleeper is an analogue of our coupe. 4 shelves, bed. Due to the fact that there are no overhead luggage racks, between the shelves more space. And the coupe seems more spacious than ours. Each compartment has a socket.

10. If you decide to repeat my feat with a trip by rail, then I strongly recommend that you take tickets for the evening train. At the beginning the road is not very beautiful: steppe and steppe all around. But in the morning, at about 9 o’clock, the Tang-La pass begins, with an altitude of more than 5000 meters. This is already beautiful. Passengers on morning trains do not see all this beauty, as they cross the pass at night.

11. Snow!

12. There is an oxygen supply valve near each shelf.

13. Landscapes

14. Dining car, on the left there is fresh lettuce growing in the drawers.

15. There is a road running along the railway, and loaded trucks slowly trudge along it. According to my feelings, 80% of all transport is trucks. Speaking of which, someone might want to travel to Tibet by car.

16. The architecture of high-mountain settlements is primitive and dull.

17. Mostly these are some kind of trailers and tents standing in the mud.

18. Let's get back to our train. Facilities include a toilet. My feeling is that it is not washed while it is in use, so the further you go, the sharper the aromas become. It is difficult to sleep near the toilet due to the strong smell.

19. Every third carriage has a toilet for the disabled! It is spacious and cleaner, since few people go there.

20. Along the road, almost every kilometer, there are booths with the inscription “People’s Road Protection.” A soldier sits in each booth and salutes passing trains. There are really a lot of these booths, it’s not very clear what they are for. Maybe they are afraid of sabotage?

21. Although, perhaps these are railway workers, not soldiers.

22. In some places there are no booths, so a guy in uniform comes to the tracks in a car and instead of saluting, he talks on the phone.

23. Beautiful

24. As I already said, there is a dining car on the train. But that's not all! Have you ever seen a karaoke car on a train? Here! And he is here! A whole car of unbridled fun. Here you can buy booze and sing any songs.

25. Despite the fact that drinking alcohol at altitude is strongly discouraged, the local people eat their fill.

26. How much beer does it take to get drunk? Here we must take into account that the strength of Chinese beer is usually 3-4 degrees, so you need to try very hard.

27. The train, by the way, is well decorated.

28.

29. And outside the window there are sheep grazing.

30. And the yaks! Yak is the main animal here, there are some countless herds of them. I have never seen so many yaks before. They say, by the way, that in Tibet half of the dishes are prepared using yak meat (how to say in Russian, “yachatina”?).

31. In the seated class, people also leaven.

32.

33.

34. The train gradually descends, and the snow disappears, green meadows begin.

35.V seated carriages There are no sockets, so people charge their gadgets near the washbasins through numerous extension cords and power banks.

36. A new highway is being built outside the window! Construction has just begun, but somewhere they have already started making overpasses and tunnels.

37. As I understand it, this is protection so that the paths are not blocked in winter? And what is that grid of stones in the foreground? Why is she?

38. There are few stops, and they are used mainly by locals. A tourist will not be able to get off at a stop, because the Chinese have thought of everything! As soon as you board the train, your ticket is taken away and you are given a plastic card with your seat number instead. To get off at any train station, you must show your ticket! And if there is no ticket, there is no exit in the wrong place! The ticket will be returned to you immediately before arriving at your stop. Like this! In general, everything is strict.

39. The local people are dragging some giant bales with them. In general, it is not clear how they move with them at such a height. It is difficult for an unprepared person to breathe. Labor migration is very common in China. People constantly travel to work in more developed regions, that is, from the west to the east of the country. They are forced to carry a huge amount of belongings with them, with the help of which they settle in a new place. For example, they can carry with them a mattress on which they sleep at the construction site where they are hired to work.

40. Interior of a seating car

41.

42. There is incredible beauty outside the window!

43. It’s worth going just for the scenery. You sit and constantly shoot out the window.

44. Isn't it a miracle? And yaks are grazing around!

45.

46. ​​There are cameras on every pole! What did you want? Difficult area.

47.

48.

49. A minute of advertising for my good friend! Remember Moishe from New York? He worked as a paparazzi, and I talked about his difficult work. By the way, if you haven’t read it, be sure to read it, it’s cool. So, Moishe got tired of running around New York chasing the stars, and he decided to sell tea! The tea is very good and is delivered all over the world. If any of my readers are in the know, then remember the site. Especially if you live in the USA. Enjoying black tea on the train is not so easy: at altitude the water does not heat up to 100 degrees, and black tea is difficult to brew.

50.

51. In the morning, local drunks began to play cards. The Chinese are very big fans of card games and gambling; this is a very common pastime. At the same time, gambling for money in China is naturally prohibited, but everyone still plays, no one cares for a long time.

52. Clouds gathered over our train.

53. How many yaks are there!

54. What about food? Well, first of all, there is a restaurant car - you already understood that. And secondly, conductors with carts constantly walk around the carriages.

55. They sell all sorts of inedible junk like chocolates and chips, as well as soda. I highly recommend taking food with you.

56. In the morning a cart with milk is driving by.

57. This is all planned construction of the road. Soon there will be a highway to Tibet!

58.

59.

60. Unlike Russian trains, the washbasin in China is not in the toilet, but separately, right next to the vestibule instead of one of the compartments. It’s very convenient: when everyone goes to brush their teeth in the morning, there’s no need to stand in line for the toilet.

61. There is free boiling water in each carriage.

62.

63. We are approaching Lhasa.

64. Active construction of historical and cultural heritage is underway.

65. The trains are very clean, there are carpets everywhere! And the doors between the cars are always open, and you can walk around safely. By the way, the couplings are sealed, there is no noise. You can stand in the vestibule and talk in a whisper.

66.

67. Another station.

68. Inscription on the road: “We will carry out construction in an exemplary manner to preserve the last clean piece of land in the world!”

69. At every station there are people in uniform and keep order

70. Passengers line up in neat queues.

71.

72. And here it is, Lhasa station! Huge!

73. Foreigners must register with the police. They check the permit again and scan the passports.

74. Tomorrow I will start telling you about Tibet! Interestingly?

Sealed carriages, 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 a unique Qinghai-Tibet Railway. In just five years and three and a half billion dollars, China built a highway 1,150 kilometers long, connecting the “Roof of the World” with the main territory of the country.

Back in the early 1920s, 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, they were able to return to the idea of ​​the “father of the nation” only 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 had difficulty reaping the benefits. Great Leap Forward».

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

Work on the second, high-altitude section to Lhasa was associated with engineering tasks 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.

Only at the beginning of the 21st century did the country reach a level of technological readiness that made it possible to begin implementing a large-scale infrastructure project. Moreover, the construction of the railway to Lhasa became a key stage in the development program of Western China, the purpose of which is to eliminate the imbalance in the development of eastern and western regions countries. Another important, and perhaps the main, task of the PRC government was to strengthen ties between 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. On this site, 45 stations were organized, 38 of which were automatic, without maintenance personnel. The Tibetan highway from Golmud rose from an altitude of 2800 meters above sea level to the Tang La Pass (5072 meters) and then descended again to Lhasa (3642 meters).

Golmud station.

The final terminal is in Lhasa.

About 80% of the entire new section (960 kilometers) passed through difficult high mountain areas 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 serious engineering challenge. The fact is that the top layer of permafrost tends to thaw during the short summer period, sometimes turning into an impassable 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 design for its construction, which virtually 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 sand layer. In the transverse projection, the embankment was perforated with a through network of pipes to ensure better ventilation, and its slopes were covered with special metal sheets that reflected sunlight and thereby further prevented its heating. In some areas, wells filled with liquid nitrogen were also installed. 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 changes in the construction areas, a significant part of the highway is laid on overpasses. In total, there are 675 bridges along its 1,142 kilometers, total length 160 kilometers. The supports of these overpasses are essentially piles, the bases of which rest deep in the permafrost, due to which seasonal thawing of the upper layer does not have any effect on the stability of the structure's structure. The gaps between the column supports do not impede the free circulation of air underneath them, which allows minimizing the additional thermal effect from the railway.

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

Sections of the Qinghai-Tibet Road, laid on embankments on the surface of the earth, are fenced along their entire length, and special tunnels and bridges are regularly built for the passage of migrating animals.

After completion of construction, the Tibet Railway set several records for railway construction. 350 kilometers from Golmud at an altitude of 4900 meters above sea level, the highest 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 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 at an altitude of 5068 meters only four meters lower highest point the entire highway (5072 meters).

Although trains stop here, it is essentially just a siding on a single-track highway. The station is fully automatic and controlled from Xining, where the central control of the entire road is located. None settlements there is none nearby, which, however, did not stop the Chinese from building a fairly large station here, worthy of a record-breaking station.

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

To ensure that passengers enjoy traveling through the high mountainous regions with their stunning scenery, special rolling stock was developed for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The American corporation General Electric designed NJ2 diesel locomotives for the line, modified for operation in high mountain conditions, with a power of 5100 hp. With. every. The locomotives are capable of reaching speeds of up to 120 km/h with a train of 15 cars. In permafrost zones, their speed is limited to 100 km/h.

The carriages for road maintenance were built at the Chinese plant of the Canadian concern Bombardier in the amount of 361 units (308 regular and 53 special tourist). All of them are virtually hermetically sealed from the environment; oxygen pressure close to standard is maintained inside.

Despite this, attacks of mountain 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 excess solar radiation, again characteristic of high mountains.

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

The trunk capacity is eight pairs passenger trains per day (not counting freight). Currently, Lhasa is connected by regular passenger traffic not only with the neighboring “regional” center of Xining, but also with largest cities countries - Beijing and Shanghai. The Beijing-Lhasa Express takes 44 hours to travel. The cost of tickets, depending on the class, ranges from $125 (reserved seat) to $200 (compartment).

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

Over the seven years of operation, more than 63 million passengers and 300 million tons of cargo were transported along the road. Annual passenger turnover increased from 6.5 million people in 2006, when the highway was put into operation, to 11 million people in 2012, annual freight turnover 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.

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

Skeptics consider the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to be just the next stage in the gradual Chinese colonization of a peculiar autonomous region and the locomotive of its development natural resources. Geologists have already discovered deposits of copper, lead and zinc in the highlands of Tibet, raw materials desperately needed by the rapidly growing Chinese industry. Environmentalists, of course, fear that the presence of a modern railway in the region will only encourage the Chinese government to quickly develop these deposits with unpredictable consequences for the fragile ecosystem of the region.

However, so far these are only unconfirmed fears. But it is difficult to deny the popularity of the road among Tibetan residents, who have the opportunity to easily and quickly get to the highly developed eastern regions of the country, and especially among tourists, for whom the highway is a wonderful attraction, created with typically Chinese tenacity, literally moving mountains.