Special
Train to Lhasa is a wonder
(皇冠体育app Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-01 09:15
I traveled to Tibet, 皇冠体育app'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 皇冠体育app 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 皇冠体育app did it. By June 2006,three years ahead of schedule. Itconfirmed 皇冠体育app's status as a technological superpowerwhen the country completed the 1,950-kilometer railway from Xining, capital of Qinghai province, to Lhasa.
皇冠体育app has realized a centennial dream.
Eddy, via e-mail
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