The World's Highest Railway
Dr Marc Shaw of www.travel-essentials.co.nz
and Worldwise
Travellers Health has returned from the world's highest
train journey from Beijing China to Lhasa Tibet where he studied
the effects on travellers of high altitude train travel and
met with fellow medical colleagues in Lhasa.
 The
4064klm train trip took 48 hours, leaving Beijing every night
at 21:30pm and arriving in Lhasa at 20:58pm two days later.
The train has hard seat tickets (for migrant workers and desperate
backpackers who enjoy suffering) , there are both hard sleepers
and soft sleepers for the train enthusiast. Passengers cabins
are automatically supplied with oxygen at altitude and individuals
can have private oxygen tubes supplied on request when needed.
Some notes from Marc's train trip.
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, on the roof of the world is some
960 kilometers long and its tracks are located 4,000 meters
above sea level with the highest point at 5,072 meters (16640
Feet) which is at least 200 meters higher than the Peruvian
railway in the Andes, formerly the world's most elevated track.
This railway is the world's longest plateau railroad, extending
1,956 kilometers from Qinghai's provincial capital Xining to
Lhasa in Tibet. The newly completed Golmud-Lhasa section zigzags
1,142 kilometers across the Kunlun and Tanggula mountain ranges.
About 550 kilometers of the track runs on frozen earth, the
longest in any of the world's plateau railways and Tanggula
Railway Station, 5,068 meters above sea level, is the highest
railway station in the world.
A long-term monitoring system has been set up by the authorities
with an emergency relief mechanism on the water, air, noise
and ecology is in place in the hope of assessing the environment
at all times.
Fenghuoshan Tunnel, 4,905 meters above sea level, is the world's
most elevated tunnel on frozen earth and Kunlun Mountain Tunnel,
running 1,686 meters, is the world's longest plateau tunnel
built on frozen earth. The maximum train speed is designed to
reach 100 kilometers per hour in the frozen earth areas and
120 kilometers per hour on non-frozen earth.
Every train running on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has special
tanks for storing garbage and waste water. The waste is collected
from the trains and treated in designated stations. The frozen
earth on the plateau has also been well preserved thanks to
the technology of heat preservation, slope protection and roadbed
ventilation in the frozen earth areas.
China has a massive rail network and travellers can combine
this amazing train trip with their tour to China or just book
it with hotel accommodation at the beginning and end of the
train journey. Flight connections via Asian points, make for
easy stopover connections to and from China or Tibet. For
more details and information contact our experienced travel
agents:
293 Ponsonby Road Ponsonby Auckland
New Zealand
Ph: 09 360 0443| E-mail
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