MB Civic

From: wtn July 3, 2006

China Opens High-Altitude Tibet Railway Line (Reuters)
————————————————————–By Chris Buckley

BEIJING, July 03 (Reuters ) – China opened the world’s highest railway on
Saturday, celebrating the link to Tibet as a feat of national strength and
ethnic harmony while critics decried it as a threat to Tibetan culture and
the environment.

A proud President Hu Jintao waved farewell as the first train left Golmud,
the dusty outpost in the far-western province of Qinghai that is the start
of the new 1,142-km (710-mile) route to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

“The building of the Qinghai-Tibet railway is of major significance for
accelerating the economic and social development of Tibet and Qinghai,
improving the lives of people of every ethnicity, and strengthening unity
between ethnic groups,” Hu told a meeting broadcast on Chinese television.

The trains will pass spectacular icy peaks on the Tibetan highlands,
touching altitudes as high as 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) above sea level.
Lhasa, which leaves many visitors gasping for breath, lies at about 3,650
metres (11,976 feet).

To counter the harsh conditions, passengers will have pressurised cabins and
the option of oxygen masks, and double-layer glass windows that cut harmful
ultra-violet rays.

The first train from Beijing left late on Saturday and is scheduled to reach
Lhasa 48 hours later, after a 4,000-km (2,500-mile) journey. Trains from
Lhasa and from Chengdu in southwest China also left on Saturday.

“It’s a historic moment,” said Fu Yaoxiang, a retired forestry worker from
Beijing who got economy “hard seat” tickets on the Beijing train. “My wife
and I are going there just to have fun.”

A one-way “hard seat” ticket from Beijing to Lhasa costs 389 yuan ($48.60);
a first-class “soft sleeper” ticket is up to 1,262 yuan ($157.80), according
to state media.

The Xinhua news agency said the railway that took five years to build could
double Tibet’s tourist revenues by 2010 and slash transport costs to Tibet,
lifting the region’s 2.8 million people out of isolation.

China’s Communist army occupied the mountain region in 1950. Nine years
later, Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India after a
failed uprising.

Tibet’s Communist Party chief Zhang Qingli said in Lhasa on Saturday the
railway “presents a precious opportunity to ensure the country’s lasting
order and stability”, state television reported, alongside images of dancing
Tibetans.

“BLACK DAY”

Critics say the railway will spur an influx of long-term migrants that
threatens Tibetans’ cultural integrity, which rests on Buddhist beliefs and
a traditional herding lifestyle.

Tibetans in Dharamsala, northern India, where the Dalai Lama head a
government in exile, called Saturday a “black day”.

According to Chinese statistics, Tibet’s average economic growth from 2001
to 2005 was more than 12 percent a year, driven by injections of central
government funds.

But too little of that development benefits Tibetans who, with Chinese
migrants flooding in, have been excluded from prosperity, said Kate Saunders
of the International Campaign for Tibet. “We’re already seeing the
marginalisation of Tibetans, and the railroad is the final achievement,” she
said.

Han Chinese make up 4.2 percent of Tibet’s permanent population according to
Chinese statistics, but critics say the number of uncounted long-term
migrants is much larger.

Opponents also say the railroad across fragile, frozen highlands is an
environmental peril. And some scientists say global warming could buckle the
tracks as frozen ground thaws.

The government says it has taken steps to protect the environment.

(Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck and Mark Chisholm in Beijing, Lucy
Hornby in Shanghai and Lobsang Wangyal in Dharamsala)