I was surprised to read an article on news.com.au thismorning written by a guy from Aus who had just traveled on the new high altitude train which travels 1142kms from Xi'an (the home of the terracotta warriors) to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. And when I say that it's high altitude I mean it, 5072 metres at it's highest point, with numerous station dotted along at heights of 4000+ metres. The seats come fitted with oxygen masks that don't just drop down in the case of emergency, they are there for personal use throughout the journey if required, which they appear to be in many cases to stave off the onset of altitude sickness. Only one man has died in the train's first two months of operation, and he only died because he was in his 70s and going against his doctors advice when he went on the trip. It's also not as though they didn't try to save him, since he was evacuated by a rescue team.
Anyway, read the article and you might be thinking, as I am, that it sounds like a bit of fun. It's sad though when you think of some of the bad points of having the rail service to Tibet in the first place. I remember reading months/years ago (time kinda melts together in a way that I can't distinguish distance so well. Don't you find that everything was, 'just the other day') about fears Tibetans had about the rail service. They were saying that the rail line was going to bring a portion of the 100's of millions of Chinese itinerant workers that roam the country every year in search of work, and that this influx of opportunistic workers would have the effect of diluting the distinctly Tibetan culture and Chineseafy everything. I'm sure that in China's mind, there couldn't be a better and more bloodless way of getting rid of a sticky problem.
Anyway, read the article here, and dream your next dreams with your head in the clouds...
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