Summary
On July 1, the first train to Lhasa, Tibet, left Beijing. Government officials, members of the international press corps, tourists, and Chinese citizens climbed aboard for that first ride, which took two days. Travel writers and reporters filed glowing stories about the science and engineering that made it possible to lay tracks more than 16,000 feet above sea level along the Qinghai- Tibet plateau. Among other marvels, the Lhasa train's rail bed has a cooling system to keep the permafrost under the railbed frozen.
Almost a year before the first train pulled into Lhasa, Tibetans across the world began a "stop the train" campaign, maintaining that the train is designed to carry thousands of Chinese settlers to Tibet and Tibet's natural resources to China. Tibetans in exile said China would make its huge investment in the railroad pay for itself at Tibet's expense. They tried to block the sale of Canadian train coaches to China, but their protests had little effect.See the full content of this document
Extract
Tracks That Form a Question Mark
Few of the international reporters who rode the first train into Lhasa stayed long enough to see the railway's foundation crack and sink just a few weeks later. Perhaps the permafrost is melting after all. Scientists who study global warming say by 2050 the railway will be threatened by rising temperatures. Shifting sands and yaks on the tracks are...
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