Qinghai-Tibet Railway
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Qinghai-Tibet Railroad Nearing Completion
After four years of construction across some of the world's most rugged terrain, a new railroad connecting China's far western Qinghai province with Tibet is close to completion. Beijing says the project is an important part of its campaign to develop China's poor western region. But critics fear the rail link will help the government tighten its grip on Tibet, and further marginalize Tibetans in their own homeland. Siska Silitonga recently visited the region's capital, Lhasa, and has this report. Hundreds of construction workers at the Lhasa River Bridge put the finishing touches on a section of an 1,100-kilometer railroad linking the region to the rest of China via Qinghai Province. At the moment, two roads are the only land routes from China proper into Tibet, which forms China's southwestern corner. Once this railroad has been completed, the currently long and tortuous trip from Beijing to Lhasa will be cut to a relatively simple 48-hour journey. This ambitious project began in 2001 and, as chief engineer Wang Wei Gang explains, many technical difficulties had to be overcome. "There are three major difficulties: the high altitude and lack of oxygen, the deep frozen earth and the fragile ecology," said Wang Wei Gang. Billions of yuan have been poured into the project. The Chinese government says the rail line will bring Tibetans more opportunities and greater access to the outside world. Xu Jianchang, vice director general of the Tibetan Development and Reform Commission, says the local economy will benefit. "Tibet is rich in water resources, but if we want to sell water to other provinces, we have to use trucks or buses," said Xu Jianchang. "After the rail is constructed, the local resources can be transported at much lower costs." However, critics fear the railroad will mean more than just goods entering and leaving Tibet. Since the launch of the government's "Go West" campaign in the late 1990's, China's western provinces have seen a massive influx of people of the country's ethnic Han majority. According to the Tibetan government, each year about 50,000 migrants flock to Lhasa, a city now of 250,000. Once trains start running into Tibet, the region is likely to see an increase in ethnic Han job hunters. Tibetans say this will make it even harder for them to get jobs, and will erode their culture and identity. The Han look on Tibet as a place of opportunity. Zhang Keping has opened a convenience store in Lhasa, leaving her three-year-old son in adjacent Qinghai Province. Despite the separation, she is confident she will soon be able to provide a better life for her family than she could in Qinghai, where jobs are scarce. "There isn't much work in Qinghai other than working as a farmer," said Zhang Keping. "That's why I chose to come here. Many of my friends have come to Lhasa, and we all make good money. I don't plan to go home. What work is there for me back there? I haven't even been back once." Most Tibetans are farmers, and lack the skills needed to work in offices or start businesses. Many of them cannot speak Mandarin, China's national language. Mr. Xu of the Tibetan Development office says the government is spending nearly $2 million a year on new training projects to help the Tibetans compete with the newcomers. "We are only in the beginning stage," said Mr. Xu. "Starting from last year we are spending 15 million yuan [$1.9 million] annually for these training programs. Mainly to train the villagers to increase their knowledge and technical skills." But many Tibetans still worry about the influx of Han Chinese. Tserin is a Tibetan taxi driver in Lhasa. "If you can't speak Chinese then there's no way you can find work," said Tserin. "Life in Tibet is getting harder, look around, all the Han people are running the businesses here. Lhasa is full of them." A souvenir hawker outside a Lhasa hotel is blunt when asked about the Han Chinese. Speaking in Tibetan and using hand gestures, he pushes down his head to demonstrate that the Han are suppressing the locals. Their incomes are different, too. The Han usually earn a good living from restaurants, massage houses, and karaoke bars. The Tibetans - many still clad in traditional costume - earn much less selling local crafts or farm products. In the bigger towns, Tibetan beggar children flock around tourists. China began a decade-long conquest of Tibet in 1949. A Tibetan government-in-exile, led by the region's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is based in India, and has tens of thousands of supporters around the world who oppose Chinese rule. Many Tibetans think the Qinghai Railway will do more than help Han Chinese migrate to the region - they say it will help the Chinese government consolidate its power over Tibet.
High-Altitude Railway to Link China, Tibet - 2001-08-21
China has begun building the world's highest-altitude railway, connecting the far western province of Qinghai with Tibet. The railway will make it faster and cheaper to move people and goods into the region, but the project is fraught with controversy. In the middle of the vast desert of China's northwestern Qinghai province, several dozen workers from around the country are laying railroad tracks, which will eventually lead to Tibet. They perform their backbreaking labor under the blazing sun for $2.50 a day. And for the glory of taking part in what may be one of the most ambitious engineering attempts in history: to build the world's highest altitude railway, winding over 1,100 kilometers of forbidding, snowcapped mountains from Golmud city in Qinghai to Tibet's capital, Lhasa. Construction has only just begun, but Xia Jiaxiang, vice mayor of Golmud city, says the $3.3 billion Qinghai-Tibet railway will lure 50,000 workers to the area. Mr. Xia says most of the track will be laid on ground 4,000 meters above sea level, climbing to a peak of 5,000 meters, at the Tanggula Mountains on Tibet's border. The railway project is so fraught with danger that teams of doctors with oxygen tanks have been dispatched to construction sites, to treat those with altitude sickness. Propaganda signs posted on the sides of some mountain refueling stops read "We can eat bitterness" and "We can endure hardship." Fu Weixing, one of the doctors at a site 3,000 meters above the sea, says that anywhere above this level, productivity is very low. He says workers must be in top physical condition, and even then they tire easily and can only labor six hours a day. Construction will cease altogether during the frigid winter months. But the challenges don't stop there. Half of the railway will be built on frozen earth, which risks melting in the summer. Zhao Xinyu, chief engineer for the railway, says his team has the technology to prevent permafrost from melting. And asked about the railway's effect on endangered wildlife such as the Tibetan antelope, Mr. Zhao says corridors will be built below the tracks, for animals to cross without danger. He says the government will take care to protect the region's ecosystem. But the railroad brings other concerns. Many Tibetans say the railway will consolidate Chinese control over their homeland, which has been occupied by Chinese troops since 1950, shortly after the Communists gained power. A Tibetan native to Qinghai, who calls herself Tsering, says that the railway will bring a flood of Han Chinese to the area and dilute the already fragile Tibetan culture. She says she expects much more tension to develop between Chinese and Tibetans. Vice Governor Baima of Qinghai province denies that China is building the railway for political control over the region. He asks, how much future can a poor region have if it relies solely on trucks for transportation? Mr. Baima says Tibet and Qinghai cannot develop without the railway, which is expected to be completed in 2007. One ethnic Tibetan worker, a 34-year-old father of two, seems to agree with the government, saying that the railway will help tourism and transport. He himself has never been to Tibet. But asked if he wants to go there, he is stumped. Even if I wanted to go, he says, I can't afford the trip.
China defends Tibet plans
China says it is determined to step up economic development in Tibet, despite environmental concerns. In a new policy document, the government said that it attached tremendous importance to the environmental protection of Tibet, which China has ruled since 1959. It even dubbed the controversial Qinghai-Tibet Railway project an 'ecologically-friendly railway'. But critics dismissed the report as propaganda, and said that in reality the economic development of Tibet was damaging its environment. The lengthy document outlined a number of environmental initiatives, which it said complemented the economic development of Tibet. It pointed out that Tibet had one of the least polluted environments in the world, and that not one species in Tibet had become extinct in more than 50 years since China took control of the region. Although public statements single out environmental priorities, in reality they come way behind strategic and economic concerns. Kate Saunders, Tibetan specialist But it said that environmental concerns should not check economic development and criticised supporters of the Dalai Lama and "international anti-China forces" for trying to restore "backward feudal serfdom" to the region. "Camouflaging themselves with pretensions of concern about eco-environmental protection in Tibet, they want really nothing but to hamper the social progress and modernisation of Tibet", it said. But Kate Saunders, a UK-based Tibet specialist, dismissed the report as propaganda. She told BBC News Online: "Although public statements single out environmental priorities, in reality they come way behind strategic and economic concerns". Railway link The construction of the 1,140 km Qinghai-Tibet railway, which will connect the Tibetan capital Lhasa with Golmud in Qinghai, is another area of contention. Tibet is rich in various minerals including coal, aluminium and zinc, which have been difficult to exploit because of poor transport links to the region. The building of the railway, which is due for completion in 2007, would change that and allow for more efficient extraction and distribution. Although the government report says that environmental concerns wee central to the railway's development, Ms Saunders said that the Ministry of Railways itself admitted in 2001 that the impact on the ecosystem would be negative. She also said that another reason for the building of the railway was to allow swift troop movements to China's western frontier.
Knowledge Graph
Examples
1 The company behind the train service, Qinghai-Tibet Railway, is now seeking formal approval for the scheme from the Chinese government.
2 The region is roughly half-way between Xining and Lhasa, about 400km from the Qinghai-Tibet railway line.
3 The train set off on Saturday following the inauguration of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the world's highest.