China plans railroad to Tibet
2001-03-16 11:47
Jeremy Page
Golmud, China - From the edge of this
desert outpost in China's far west a single railway track
shoots in a straight line to a distant spot where the flatland
meets a row of snow-capped peaks. And then it stops.
Ahead is Tibet, the Roof of World, a land of glaciers and
ravines so remote and inhospitable it is the only part of China
where the rail network dies.
Yet under plans just approved by the National People's
Congress, or parliament, Chinese railway engineers are set to
attempt one of the greatest construction feats of all time,
extending the track from Golmud in Qinghai province all the way
to Lhasa 1 100 km away.
Cutting across the Tibetan plateau at altitudes of 4 000
metres, the railway will be the world's highest.
It may also become the most controversial.
Tibet activists overseas see it as a ploy to tighten
Beijing's grip on the region its troops occupied in 1950. When
it is finished in 2007, it will be the main year-round land
route into Tibet, and will bring a new torrent of Han Chinese
settlement and investment.
Golmud is already gripped by gold rush fever.
Sleepers are piling up in its rail yard, and trains that
rattle into the station are jammed with migrant workers.
"It's not going to be easy," admitted Tang Lizhi as he
shuffled Mahjong tiles to kill time with a group of farmers
from a Gansu province work gang.
"The terrain is harsh, the air is thin and the Tibetans
don't like us, but the money should be good."
Open the west
The $2.5 billion railroad is a key part of a drive to bring
jobs and investment to China's impoverished west, and was one
of five major projects tabled at the annual session of
parliament.
China says the railway will provide an economic lifeline to
Tibet, where per capita income is only half the national
average despite more than 50 years of Chinese rule.
With precious little agriculture or industry, the tiny
Tibetan economy relies almost entirely on supplies brought in
from Golmud.
Every day, hundreds of trucks piled with everything from
cement and tyres to washing powder and instant noodles set out
on a two-day journey along the treacherous tarmac and dirt
road.
Huge military convoys have to snake their way over
5 000-metre passes to supply the garrison which
patrols China's border with India and enforces Beijing's rule
in Tibet.
The railway will make that journey safer, faster and much
cheaper.
"The railway is of strategic significance and will exert a
far-reaching impact in political, economic and military terms,"
state media quoted Vice-Minister of Railways Sun Yongfu as
saying.
Vice-President Hu Jintao told Tibetan lawmakers last week
development was key to stability in the restive region.
"Speeding up Tibet's development has a very important
significance for improving the living conditions of people of
all ethnic groups in Tibet and for strengthening national
solidarity and safeguarding the unification of the motherland,"
said Hu, a former Communist Party chief in Lhasa.
Dalai Lama opposes railway
Tibet activists say the railway is the next step in the
economic colonisation of the Himalayan region.
"We feel this will bring in more Chinese settlers to Tibet
and alter the demographic composition in favour of the
Chinese," said Thubten Samphel, a spokesperson for the Tibetan
government-in-exile in Dharamsala, the north Indian town where
Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has lived since
fleeing his homeland in 1959.
The project would "increase the economic exploitation of
Tibet's untapped mineral resources by Beijing", Samphel said.
"We are very concerned it is a part of China's move to
strengthen its hold on the hinterlands."
There are also widespread concerns about the environmental
impact on the fragile ecosystem of a region that is the source
of two of China's major waterways - the Yangtze and Yellow
rivers.
Chinese officials have promised to relay turf alongside the
railroad and even build culverts under the tracks to let wild
animals pass.
"We'll try our best to protect natural resources, despite
the fact that it may slow down construction," Sun said.
Railway boomtown
Eventually, the railway will extend to Tibet's second city
of Shigatse and China's southwestern province of Yunnan.
Before construction starts in July, Chinese experts are
examining railways built on frozen soil in Russia and Canada
and experimenting with different cures for altitude sickness,
state media have reported.
In Golmud, new shops, restaurants and hotels have sprung up
to cater for an influx of engineers, officials and labourers
with money jingling in their pockets.
Tang, who arrived in February, hopes to earn 400 yuan ($48)
a month on the railroad - more than he would make in a year in
his village.
He has joined 400 other workers from Gansu living in a
ramshackle collection of houses on the outskirts of Golmud.
They are hiring themselves out as a work team through a local
agent, and seem ready for a long haul.
"Next stop Lhasa," Tang joked.
($1 = 8.278 yuan)
- Reuters