Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a track rewriting human’s project history and Tibet’s history. As the first railway to Tibet, the Qinghai-Tibet railway ended Tibet’s history without railroad and train. It was believed that human are not able to build a railway on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. However, the launching of this altiplano railway on 1st July 2006 proves that Chinese engineers can do it. Making a Tibet tour via this railway is considered as a lifetime journey for many travelers.

1. Explore World’s Highest Railway
Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a track rewriting human’s project history and Tibet’s history. As the first
railway to Tibet, the Qinghai-Tibet railway ended Tibet’s history without railroad and train. It was
believed that human are not able to build a railway on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. However, the
launching of this altiplano railway on 1st July 2006 proves that Chinese engineers can do it.
Making a Tibet tour via this railway is considered as a lifetime journey for many travelers.
Listed as one of the top ten miracles in human’s project history, the Qinghai-Tibet has aroused
much of the world's attention and it had certainly caught travelers to try this novelty ride out.
This railway is certainly something to rave about - from being the world's highest and longest
plateau railroad to being an engineering marvel with technological breakthroughs in the railway
construction since almost half of the total track was being built on permafrost (frozen soil).
The railway track is a total of 1,956 Km from Xining (capital of Qinghai Province) to Lhasa. About
960 Km of the track is located 4,000 meters above sea level with the highest point being 5,972
meters at Tanggula Mount. Construction challenges include permafrost, oxygen deficiency,
freezing coldness and ecologically vulnerable environment including the wild highland animals.
Modern technologies and ideas in China were used to defeat these challenges.
The routes were selected so that they kept away from the major habitats of wild animals. The
original design of the railway would have it passing through the black-necked crane nature
reserve on the middle reaches of the Yarlungzangbo River. After many discussions, the designers
decided to select a circuitous route via Yangbajain, to avoid disturbing the birds.
If avoidance was impossible, such as the section cutting through the Hohxil, Qumar and Soga
nature reserves, the planners compared several designs, and put forward protection measures to
minimize disturbance to the nature reserves. Based on the investigations and studies of the
habits and migration patterns of the wild animals along the railway line, the planners established
25 passageways for wild creatures at different sections of the line. When travelers travel to Tibet
by train, they will notice that many sections of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway are bridges which do
not span over rivers, but over grasslands.
Permafrost was one of the most important problems in the Qinghai-Tibet Railway construction. In
order to ensure the roadbed stability in permafrost regions, the engineers worked out new ideas
of cooling embankment to protect the permafrost basis on an accumulation of achievements in
permafrost.
The engineers participated in the drawing up of Temporary Regulations on Engineering
Reconnoitre and Engineering Design of the permafrost section of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and
carried out studies into road construction technologies including gravels embankment and

2. vent-pipe roadbed techniques. They also completed the construction of a 14-km demonstration
project in Beiluhe section and initially established the long-term monitoring platform for the
permafrost roadbed of the Railway.
In addition, as the train to Tibet goes above 4000 meters, the inside of the train is regulated with
oxygen like in an aircraft. Unwell passengers suffering from altitude sickness can easily get the
additional oxygen by plugging a nozzle into these outlets located next to seats/sleepers and along
the corridors.