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Qinghai-Tibet Railway

Qinghai-Tibet Railway
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  • Qinghai-Tibet Railway

Qinghai-Tibet Railway

       The Qinghai-Tibet Railway starts from Xining City, Qinghai Province, passing through Golmud City, Kunlun Pass, and the Tuotuo River, crossing the Tanggula Pass, and entering Ando, Naqu, Dangxiong, Yangbajing, and Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region. With a total length of 1956 kilometers, it is an important route to Tibet, known as the "Sky Road". It is the highest-altitude railway in the world, the longest railway on permafrost, and one of China's four major projects of the new century. In September 2013, it was selected as a "Global Centennial Project" and is a milestone in the history of railway construction in the world.

       After decades of effort, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway project experienced four starts and three stops: The Xining-Golmud section (814 kilometers) was prepared for construction in the 1950s, track laying began in 1979, and it became operational in 1984; the Golmud-Lhasa section (1142 kilometers, 1110 kilometers newly built) was suspended for a long time due to three world-class challenges: thousands of kilometers of permafrost, high altitude and hypoxia, and fragile ecology. Finally, overcoming these difficulties, construction began in June 2001, and it was completed and opened to traffic on July 1, 2006. On August 16, 2014, the Lhasa-Rikaze Railway, an extension of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, was fully opened to traffic.

       The Qinghai-Tibet Railway ushered in the railway era for Tibet, strengthening the temporal and spatial connection between Tibet and the mainland, driving economic development in the Qinghai-Tibet region, and being hailed as a road of development, unity, and happiness. This magical sky road, like a lucky hada (scarf), carries the people of the snowy region toward development and happiness.