High train
Jul 6th 2006 | BEIJING
From The Economist print edition

Tibet is linked to the rest of China

AT LONG last, or so Chinese officials have been crowing, the remote Himalayan vastness of Tibet has been connected to the railway network. Modernity, they proudly and not uncontroversially say, has arrived in this backward region in the form of an engineering miracle that has laid tracks on land gripped year-round by ice, a railway line at higher altitude than any other in the world.

The launch on July 1st of the first passenger train services to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, has been covered by the Chinese media with hoopla only comparable to that surrounding the country's first launch of a man into space three years ago. President Hu Jintao attended the send-off from Golmud in the neighbouring province of Qinghai. As with China's space launches, the foreign media were kept well away (some were grudgingly allowed onto a train that arrived in Lhasa two days after the first one had successfully arrived). Tibetan exiles had been protesting that the train would unleash a flood of Chinese immigrants and destroy their environment and culture. China did not want that kind of coverage on what was, not coincidentally, the Communist Party's 85th birthday.

 
The 1,142 km (710 mile) Golmud-Lhasa line certainly sounds impressive. It took five years to build, at a cost of an official $4 billion. It traverses oxygen-starved, earthquake-prone terrain that for most of the way is over 4,000 metres (13,120 feet) above sea level and rises to 5,072 metres—not far off the altitude of Mount Everest's base camp. Carriages are sealed and individual oxygen supplies are provided for passengers. About half of the route is across permafrost, which poses particular challenges because of the danger of subsidence caused by melting at the surface in summer. To keep things safely frozen, cooling systems have been installed in the ground. To add to all that, crossing points have had to be built for migratory Tibetan antelopes, an endangered species.

Connecting the last rail-free region of China to the railway network has been a mission of enormous political importance to a leadership bent on quashing any notion of Tibet's separateness. But the railway is unlikely to prove either the economic godsend to Tibet that Chinese accounts portray it as, or the harbinger of mass immigration that critics of Chinese rule in Tibet fear.

Only one or two freight trains a day in each direction are currently planned. Most goods will therefore continue to be transported by truck along the four highways that connect Lhasa to the rest of China. The single-track rail link is circuitous and connects the region to the more prosperous parts of China via hundreds of kilometres of the most backward areas of China's west. A more direct connection would have cost even more to build.
Zhang Chengyao, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says the railway's main contribution will be to Tibet's tourism industry. The plan is to run three passenger trains a day each way, each able to carry around 900 people. For many, approaching Tibet gradually by train will be preferable to flying in, as it will allow more time to acclimatise and reduce the chance of altitude sickness. But demand could be affected by the limited capacity of the Potala Palace, the historic residence of the Dalai Lamas, Tibet's spiritual leaders. This amazing tourist attraction has increased its daily ticket quota in response to an expected increase in visitor numbers, but media reports say many travellers will still be turned away.

Even without the railway, tourism—the mainstay of Tibet's economy—has been booming, thanks to growing interest among China's newly affluent urbanites. This has helped to promote average annual economic growth of around 12% in the past five years (see chart). Tibet's government forecasts that the same rate of growth will continue, implicitly suggesting that it does not expect the railway to make a big difference. As the economy grows, migrants will surely continue to come. But many will continue to bargain for cheap deals on buses.

火车驶入西藏，意义何在？

1、改善西藏交通状况

2、促进西藏的经济发展

3、维护祖国统一

4、促进西藏旅游业

5、增强国防

但上述说法恐怕解释不了为什么修建青藏铁路如此不经济，但反对声很小情况。这与三峡大坝修建前的大论战形成了鲜明的对比。而且，完成上述使命，通过其他方式也能轻松实现，倘若将修建青藏铁路及日后的维修费，投入到对现有青藏，川藏公路的维护和拓宽上，使之变为更高等级的公路，将几十倍的提高通过能力。因此，显然修建青藏铁路有着更为重要的意义。

目前的世界交通中，高速公路以其更灵活、自由、可塑性强等特点逐渐的迫使铁路交通逐渐淡出历史舞台。至于国防，机场和航空能力的提高显然对提高应对战争能力更加有效。

究竟火车、铁路有怎样的独特之处呢？

形象。

想象着火车进站时的场景，远处模糊的黑影逐渐清晰，伴随着汽笛的轰鸣，空气中漂浮着袅袅的蒸汽，大地在颤抖。刹车声纵然刺耳，但还是挡不住火车疾驰而来的巨大惯性。呼啸着，嘶吼着，给人一种强悍威猛的感觉。当他停稳在站台，我们还是能够感受到他那种男人的力量。