Railway to Lhasa: An Assessment
On October 12, 2005, China announced the completion of a railway line to Tibet—one of the world’s highest train routes. This railway line climbs 5,072m (16,640ft) above sea level and runs across Tibet’s snowcovered plateau—dubbed the roof of the world. China’s official Xinhua news agency while celebrating the achievement said that the equivalent of USD 3 billion had been spent on the challenging 1,118km (710-mile) section, after four years of construction.
The announcement of the completion of the railway line to Tibet coincided with the launch of Shenzhou VI carrying two astronauts (taikonauts) and was a calibrated exercise in projecting China’s image as a world power with the technological capability to sustain itself.1
Details of the Tibet Railway
Till the completion of the railway line, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) covering an area of 1.2 million square km, was the only province inaccessible by rail in China. China’s design for a railway network on the Tibetan plateau that would bring Tibet under Chinese control was conceived first by the Nationalist Government (1911–1949). Dr. Sun Yat Sen, then Director General of National Railway proposed to connect Lhasa with China but had to give up the proposal as many thought it ‘fanciful and insurmountable.’ Beginning in the 1950s, efforts were made to locate sites for construction of a line on the ‘roof of the world.’ The Korean War and the deterioration in Sino-Soviet ties delayed the Tibet railway.
In October 1994 the proposal to connect Lhasa by rail was made and under China’s Ninth Five Year Plan (1996-2000) a preliminary route survey and feasibility studies were conducted. The Number One Survey and Design Institute of China’s Ministry of Railways was instructed to prepare blueprints for a Golmud-Nagchu-Lhasa route and an alternative Lanzhou740 Nagchu-Lhasa route. Consequently, the Tenth Five Year Plan (2001-2005) allocated a budget of around 19.5 billion renminbi (RMB) for the construction of a railway between Golmud and Lhasa. This project is the second phase of the line from Xining (the capital of Qinghai province) to Lhasa with a total length of 1,956km. The first 814km section from Xining to Golmud, a traffic hub in the western part of Qinghai province, opened to traffic in 1984.
Highlighting the national prestige behind constructing the railway to Lhasa, in November 2000, President Jiang Zemin stated: “[B]uilding the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is of great importance to development of communications and tourism, and will promote economic and cultural inter-flows between China’s hinterland and Tibet.”2 In December 2000, the State Planning Commission summoned an appraisal meeting in Beijing, and submitted an official report to the State Council on construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. In early February 2001, the State Council opened the premier’s work meeting, listening to the report by the State Planning Commission on construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The meeting approved the construction of the project.
The Golmud-Lhasa route stretches from Nanshankou in Golmud city (Qinghai province) to Lhasa via Nachitai, Xidatan, Kunlun Mountain, Chumar River, Tanggula Mountain, Amdo, Cona, Nagchu, Sangxiong, Nayake, Damxung, Ningzhong, Yangbaijin Canyon and Deqen. About 564 km of the railway is located inside Qinghai Province, and 516 km in the TAR. Of the total track length of 1132 km, more than 960 km is above an altitude of over 13000 feet above sea level. More than 560 km of the railway track has been laid on permafrost earth. The railway line has been built in regions where the annual average air temperature is minus one to minus five degrees and winter temperatures dropping as low as minus forty degrees Celsius. The rail line will pass through thirty tunnels and bridges, covering a total distance of 37.5 km, and run parallel to the Golmud-Lhasa Highway. An engineering marvel on the Golmud-Lhasa rail is the Fenghuoshan Tunnel, the world’s highest. This tunnel was constructed by the 23rd Engineering Construction Bureau. The tunnel lies at the 7th mark section of Golmud-Lhasa stretch. Stretching 1,390 meters it is located 5,000 meters above sea level.3 The longest tunnel on the Lhasa railway is the 3345 meter Yangbajain No.1 tunnel. The tunnel is 4,264 meters above sea level, located 80 kilometers away from the regional capital Lhasa.4 The line will cross over the five major passes of Kunlun, Hoh-Xil, Fung-ho, Thang-la and Nyenchen Thangla. It will also pass through eight well-known basins or flatlands, such as Shingta-Then, Chumar, Thogthen, Chutsen, Nagchu, Damshung, Yangpachen, and Lhasa. The main advantage of the Golmud-Lhasa line is that it is the shortest route linking Tibet’s capital to China and requires the lowest investment running as it does through large swathes of flatland.
The railway to Lhasa is just the beginning of a concerted effort by China to put in place an ambitious infrastructure in its western region subsumed under the overall campaign termed the ‘Great Western Development.’ On the anvil are three other railway projects that will connect Tibet to the surrounding provinces. The first of these is the Gansu-Tibet Railway. The railway would extend from Yongjin County near Lanzhou in Gansu Province to Lhasa via Guanghe, Hezhi, Linxia, Dari, Shiqu, Yushu, Sog County and Nagchu to join the above mentioned Qinghai-Tibet Railway. It would pass through Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai and Tibet, extending 2,126 km with 491 km in Gansu, 794 km in Qinghai, 99 km in Sichuan and 742 km in Tibet. It is estimated that around 1,394 km of the railway would be around 4,000 meters above sea level, and 1,771 km will have to be cut through an area of permafrost. The total investment on this railway line would amount to 63.84 billion Yuan (calculated according to 1995 prices).
Parallel to the Gansu-Tibet railway is the construction of the Yunnan- Tibet railway. This railway would extend from the western terminus of the Guangtong-Dali Railway in Yunnan Province to Lhasa in Tibet, via Hehuihe River, Lancangjiang River, Meili Mountain, Nujiang, Mainling, Nang, Sangri and Gunggar. Extending 1,594.4 km, it is estimated that the project would be completed in 10 years. The investment involved would total 63.591 billion Yuan (according to 1997 prices).
The last of the railway projects linking Tibet to China is the Sichuan– Tibet railway. This would extend from Dujiangyan close to Chengdu in Sichuan Province to Lhasa via Markang in Aba, Jinshajiang River, Gyangda, Lancangjiang River, Bome and Yunnan-Tibet Highway. It would cover 1,927 km, with 1,243 km in Tibet. About 1,180 km would have an average elevation of 3,000-4,000 km, with 132.5 km over 4,000 meters. Bridges and tunnels would add up to 819.24 km in length. The investment involved in this project is to the order of 76.567 billion RMB (according to 1995 prices).
Terrain Challenges to the Tibet Railway
The main technical difficulty facing the railway is the permafrost regions over which the railway has been built. These regions, if disturbed, may result in a permanently degraded environment. For engineers, it is far simpler to construct a railway line over rocky terrain. The problem with permafrost is that it is wet ground that moves with freezing and thawing depending upon the season. The Tibetan plateau in this way is worse than areas in Alaska, Siberia and Scandinavia, as there is more radiation during the summer months. The frozen earth is also unstable owing to a relatively high earth temperature. The railway presents, therefore, an engineering challenge of proportions not faced previously. For the engineers involved in the project the ultimate aim is to reduce the amount of heat ascending from the earth’s surface, thereby increasing the reserves of frozen earth.6 The locomotive weighs 86 tons.
Strategic Aspects of the Tibet Railway
The strategic need for China to have a railway link with Lhasa overrides all other considerations. Addressing the Western Forum in Chengdu on October 22, 2000, Sun Yonfu, China’s Vice Minister of Railways, said that China would build a railway to Lhasa “to promote the economic development of the Tibet Autonomous Region and to strengthen national defence.”8 Near the start of the line south of Golmud, there have been found mineral resources: Copper, cobolt and gold. There are possibly, large oil reserves along the railway line near Lhuenpola basin (4700 m) as well as near Jangtang and Kyegudo. There is an oil refinery and a potassium products plant at Golmud.
For the Chinese it will make the economic development of Tibet easier, as transportation prior to the railway line was limited to trucks on ramshackle highways. As of now the only connection between Golmud and Lhasa is a bumpy and poorly maintained road. A trip on this road takes three days. With trains, this journey can be reduced to 24 hours for freight and 18 hours for passenger trains. The railway will vastly increase transport capacity and speed, as well as mobility for passengers, who might well be economic migrants to a new land opened up by the possibilities of better infrastructure.9
Politically speaking, the railway will make it easier to deploy Chinese troops into Tibet, thereby making it easier to enforce Beijing’s authority over the Tibetans. A report in the Qinghai Daily on September 12, 2001 described the railway as the “political [front] line” in consolidating the south-western border defences and stabilising Tibet. Further, the TAR fiveyear plan states that building a railway in Tibet “is of the utmost importance for consolidating the south-western border of the motherland, exploiting rich natural resources along the railway and establishing close economic and political ties between Tibet and other parts of the country.” The proposed railway would further remove the barriers preventing the complete integration of Tibet into China in both political and economic terms.
There are also security goals. At an international development conference held in Xining city, Qinghai province from July 21-24, 1998 where the feasibility and cost benefits of the Qinghai-Tibet railway were discussed by Chinese and Western scientists, the Chinese scientists admitted that while the extension of the railway could not be justified on economic grounds, there was a clear political need for the railway – particularly in order to strengthen border security.
Conclusion
The railway to Lhasa is a significant strategic development. China’s ‘Great Western Development’ which earlier was confined to the western provinces has now reached Lhasa. The railway line with its technical features clearly establishes the improved transport and communication infrastructure in China with its capabilities for civilian and military use. While the railway in the near term might attract more Han migrants to Tibet, the other ongoing railway projects linking Tibet to its neighbouring provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan deserve more attention. If one were to go by the opinion expressed by certain Tibetan exiles, there is also the possibility of the railway being extended by the Chinese authorities from Lhasa to Shigatse, and from Shigatse onwards to Khasa (Zhangmu in Chinese), close to the Nepal border.
