Railway to the Sky
China's New Railroad to Tibet an Engineering Marvel—and a Cultural Controversy
by Richard Daub
It used to be that the journey to Tibet was nearly as mystical as the place itself. Its remote location on the world's highest plateau averaging 14,000 feet above sea level gave it the distinction of being 'the roof of the world' and made it inaccessible to most outsiders before the advent of the airplane and the automobile. Even with cars and planes, getting there involved days-long bus rides on poorly maintained roads or treacherous flights over jagged mountaintops that would often leave passengers sick from the sudden altitude change.
That all changed this past July when the Chinese government officially opened their new stretch of railway from the city of Golmud in China's remote Qinghai Province to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. This new railway, the highest in the world, connects Tibet to China's main rail network, which, for $46, now offers travelers the opportunity to make the 2,500 mile journey from Beijing to Lhasa in 48 hours in the comfort of high-tech passenger cars equipped with ventilation systems that supply extra oxygen at higher altitudes. The cars are also equipped with outlets for passengers to self-administer oxygen with tubes when needed, which is helpful when crossing Tanggula Pass at 16,640 feet, but is still no guarantee against nausea and headaches.
China's 'Miracle Railway'
During the opening ceremony on July 1, Chinese President Hu Jintao called the new train to Tibet a 'miracle railway.' This quote may have been a subtle reference to previous Chinese leaders who were unable to accomplish this feat—Mao Zedong in particular, who reportedly once said that he would be unable to sleep if a railway to Tibet was not constructed. Attempts were made, but the technology and resources were not available to complete this goal by the time he died in 1976.
The 710 mile stretch of track to Lhasa from Golmud—formerly the last stop on the line where Lhasa-bound travelers would board buses or hitchhike the rest of the way—cost $4 billion dollars and took 100,000 workers, most of whom were Chinese soldiers, five years to complete.
342 miles of the line is built on a foundation of permafrost. The last large-scale project built on permafrost was the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline completed in 1977, but the permafrost in Alaska is much more stable because of the extremely low temperatures there. On the Tibetan Plateau, the soil temperature is precariously close to the point of thawing into a muddy mixture that would be unable to support the tracks, making even moderate global warming a serious threat. Other natural threats include seasonal mudslides, wildlife wandering onto the tracks, and earthquakes originating from a major fault line the railway crosses in the Kunlun Mountains.
To help keep the permafrost frozen, engineers designed 100 miles of the line to be elevated to allow cool air to flow beneath the tracks to minimize the effect of the heat that is generated when a train rolls over. In other sections where the railway is not elevated, ventilation pipes beneath the tracks draw in outside air that aid in keeping the ground cool, and other pipes containing liquid nitrogen extract pockets of heat from the ground and pump the warmth out to the atmosphere. Sun shades are also used in some sections to block heat generated from sunlight, and rocks of different shapes and sizes were fitted together in ways that help keep the ground cool.
Despite the technology, mother nature is already proving to be a formidable foe. Less than a month after the grand opening, cracks have already been found in the concrete.
"Frozen ground used as the foundation for the railway is sinking and cracking along a few sections, and this makes some parts of the railway unstable," Wang Yongping, railway ministry spokesman, told the Beijing News on July 28. "Other teething problems along the new line include yaks wandering onto the railway and sand covering some sections."
Chinese Intentions
While Chinese officials are hailing the new railway as an engineering marvel that will benefit the citizens of Tibet, much of the international community has been skeptical of the regime's true intentions.
Since its founding in 1987, one of the most vocal critics of China's policies regarding Tibet has been Free Tibet Campaign. In a press release two days prior to the official opening of the railway, Yael Weisz-Rind of Free Tibet Campaign said, "This is, yet, another stage in China's plan to increase Han Chinese migration into Tibet, exploit Tibet's natural resources and further militarize the region."
The Government of Tibet in Exile has also criticized China for the 'rampant' deforestation of Eastern Tibet, as well as 'the poaching of large mammals.'
Another cause for concern is the region's rich mineral deposits, which, to this point, have been mostly untapped because of their relative inaccessibility. A July 28 article published by Interfax-China titled 'Tibet Railway Opens the Gates for Mining' stated that "Tibet has the largest chromium and copper deposits in the country, and prospecting has already discovered deposits of 101 other minerals and more than 2,000 more potential mining sites."
Cultural Consequences
Perhaps most visible to the outside world, however, are the cultural consequences of ethnic Tibetans now being a minority in their own home.
An estimated 7.5 million Chinese now live in Tibet, considerably outnumbering the 6 million ethnic Tibetans. While rural areas have been less susceptible to this migration, the cities of Tibet, Lhasa in particular, have been transformed into relatively modern urban centers with modern problems and have seen much of their cultural heritage reduced to curiosities for tourists.
"Discos, whorehouses, casinos—the whole service network established to service the Chinese immigrants who outnumber the Tibetans in the capital more than ten to one," said Robert A.F. Thurman, professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, during a recent interview with The Erickson Tribune. "The Tibetans rebuilt themselves enough of their religious infrastructure to provide tourist attractions, but nowadays they mainly draw Chinese, who come like colonials always have to see some of the quaint native things and places, then go to the discos, etc., in the evening."
The Dalai Lama: 'Wait and See'
Since the early 1980s, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has maintained a 'middle way' approach with China by advocating autonomy as a compromise to the full independence that many Tibetans seek, which the Chinese government seems unlikely to grant. And, while many Tibetan support groups are calling for a boycott of the new railway, His Holiness has adopted a 'wait and see' approach on the condition that it becomes the benefit to the citizens of Tibet that the Chinese government claims it will.
"We would need to wait and see what use the Chinese authorities make of the railway line," said Thubten Samphel, information secretary for the Central Tibetan Administration, in a Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) article published two days before the opening of the railway. "Our concern is that the railroad might facilitate the transportation of increasing numbers of Chinese settlers onto the Tibetan plateau." Samphel also went on to say that they welcome tourism because it is an "opportunity for foreigners to see the real conditions in Tibet." §
Sidebar:
Since 1966, Mr. Tashi Wangdi has served as an administrator for the Tibetan Government in Exile, the official agency of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Over his career he has headed nearly all of the major posts in the Central Tibetan Administration, and for several years he served as the official representative of H.H. the Dalai Lama in New Delhi. In August 2005 he assumed a similar role as the Representative of H.H. the Dalai Lama to the Americas with The Office of Tibet, New York.
Mr. Wangdi recently granted an exclusive interview to The Erickson Tribune regarding the new section of railway opened by the Chinese government this past July that now allows for direct train service from Beijing to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. Here is what Mr. Wangdi had to say:
Tibet is a landlocked country and it needs good road connections for its development. Our concerns about the rail road are, however, several.
There are about only six million Tibetans in Tibet, and we are not sure if such a railway link is necessary. Most of the Tibetan plateau is high with a very fragile eco-system. We are not sure about the long term impact on the environment of such a massive and costly undertaking. One of the biggest threats to the survival of the Tibetan people as a race with its rich and unique cultural and spiritual tradition evolved over several thousand centuries has been the uncontrolled influx of Chinese into Tibet. The railway link is going to encourage many more millions of Chinese to move to Tibet, totally marginalizing the Tibetan population and reducing it to an insignificant minority. In the last nearly fifty years more than nine million Chinese have moved in, making the six million Tibetans already a minority.
What Tibet needs is a good network of sustainable roads and airports which will be economically viable, environmentally friendly and suitable for the development of Tibet for the Tibetan people. It is difficult to believe that the intentions and motivations of the present Chinese government are really to develop Tibet for the Tibet people.
Many people suspect that the real purpose is to exploit the rich natural resources, encourage more Chinese to settle in Tibet and further consolidate military control and domination in the subcontinent. Such a policy in our view will be self-defeating and damaging in the long run for everyone in the region.
We are not against modernization and sustainable development, which are good for both China and the Tibetan people, as well as for millions of people in that region of the world.
These are some of the reasons for our concern.
Published in The Erickson Tribune, September 2006 |
