Many people call the trip to Tibet "Heavenly Road". American train traveler Paul? "With Kunlun Mountain, the railway will never reach Lhasa," Taylor wrote in his book Traveling in China. On July 1 day, 2006, this prediction will be broken. The confused world railway economy will also get unprecedented encouragement.
World attention: "unprecedented project"
In the era when Europe and America could not produce a decent railway for many years, the appearance of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway won a burst of admiration and emotion all over the world. "Unprecedented Project" and "Milestone in the Construction History of China" are all comments made by western media on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
The BBC reported that this railway line is the highest in the world. It climbed to the highest point of 5072 meters above sea level and crossed the snow-covered Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The roar of the train will resound through the roof of the world. The average speed 100 km can be reached above 4000 meters above sea level. The carriages will adopt the same luxurious design as the aircraft cabin, and all carriages will be sealed to prevent passengers from experiencing altitude sickness. The windows will use stained glass to reduce ultraviolet radiation, and the car will also be equipped with oxygen, bathing and catering equipment.
The British "Guardian" reporter went to interview along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and published a special report entitled "Railway Crossing the Roof of the World", which was tens of thousands of words long. The article said that people say it is impossible to build a railway to Tibet, because there are mountains more than 5,000 meters above sea level, river valleys 12 kilometers wide, and thousands of kilometers of ice and snow that can't bear the weight of railway tracks; Moreover, who can drill a tunnel in a rock at MINUS 30 degrees Celsius and lay a railroad track while walking with oxygen? China can, and ahead of schedule. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway embodies China's "can do" spirit and technical strength.
Professor Vincent, a famous frozen soil expert at Oregon State University, said after inspecting the Qinghai-Tibet Railway: "The Qinghai-Tibet Railway is one of the greatest achievements in the field of engineering construction in 2 1 century." Germany's Der Spiegel believes that the construction of Qinghai-Tibet railway has encountered problems such as low temperature in the construction site, lack of oxygen in the plateau, frozen soil, earthquake, ecological environment protection and wildlife migration. , but they have all been well solved. Japanese media such as the Nihon Keizai Shimbun also reported on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in detail. Zhu Sante, a famous Japanese expert on China and a professor at Lize University, introduced the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, saying that in this arduous project construction, the China government also attached great importance to environmental protection, bypassing those precious green spaces as much as possible, and providing a passage for animals to survive.
Rashid, an expert on East Asian economic issues at Islamabad Policy Research Institute in Pakistan, said that no matter which country builds similar railways under complex terrain conditions in the future, it will learn from them. He said that, as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said recently, the Hongqilafu Pass on the border between China and Pakistan is more than 4,000 meters above sea level, and the altitude of the highest section of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has exceeded this height, which gives people a revelation: it is not technically impossible to build a railway that crosses the Karakorum Mountain and connects China and Pakistan in the future.
Dr. Ni Jun, a professor of mechanical engineering at the School of Engineering of the University of Michigan, told reporters: "As an overseas Chinese born in Qinghai, I am extremely proud of this brilliant achievement in my hometown!" He believes that the completion of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will have a great impact on the development of railways in the world. It expands the human understanding of railway construction under high altitude and extreme weather conditions, and will certainly provide many valuable experiences for railway construction in other parts of the world.
India's worries
In recent years, Indian media have reported a lot on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Government departments and think tanks have also held many expert meetings to discuss the impact of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway on India and even the entire South Asian subcontinent. India's reaction to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway can be basically summarized into four types: lamenting China's great achievements in building difficult projects, expecting China-India bilateral trade to benefit greatly from it, worrying that the completion of the railway will "destroy Tibet's natural environment", and declaring that India may face severe strategic threats in the future.
India Today once published an article saying that the completion and operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway "greatly improved China's military mobility and logistics supply capacity". A senior researcher of the Observation and Research Foundation, a well-known Indian think tank, who asked not to be named, told reporters that the completion of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has brought Tibet closer to Chinese mainland, and the resulting chain reaction is likely to be that Nepal and Bangladesh will "move closer to China", at which time the geostrategic situation of the whole South Asian subcontinent will be deeply affected.
In this regard, Hu, a scholar at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, pointed out that it should be noted that these remarks are not from Indian officials, and both China and India are committed to building strategic relations between the two countries, which is the general trend. On the fifth day after the official opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the Naidula border trade port on the Sino-Indian border will be officially opened, which is a sign of confidence in the close bilateral relations between the two countries and can also be regarded as a sign of enhanced mutual trust between the two countries. Interestingly, some media in India also call those who accuse the Qinghai-Tibet Railway of threatening India's security "insomnia paranoia in New Delhi".
It is reported that India will soon start to build seven highways in the eastern control area of the Sino-Indian border. Previously, considering the border dispute between China and India, India has been reluctant to start these infrastructure projects. Hu believes that now, the Indian government has clearly realized that the development of China will bring many economic and trade opportunities to India, and India needs to speed up infrastructure construction to seize these opportunities.
Don't worry about environmental problems.
Some western media are also "habitually" cynical about China's construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. As early as August, 2002, The Boston Globe published an article entitled "A Road Considered to be Destroyed", which was extremely content. Some western media used the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to attack China's ethnic policy.
Experts pointed out that this is exactly what China has done to protect Tibetan culture and environment. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway was built in Golmud in the late 1970s, but it has not been built for more than 20 years. One of the main considerations is how to protect the ecological environment along the railway. Environmental protection demonstration is not sufficient, protection conditions are not available, and construction will not be started resolutely.
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which runs through "Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve" and "Kegexili Nature Reserve", has invested more than 65.438+0.5 billion yuan in various environmental protection projects. Such a large amount of environmental protection investment is also very rare in a single project in the world. During the construction, once, in order to allow 9,000 Tibetan antelopes to give birth in the Zhuonaier Lake area of Hoh Xil through the construction site of Wudaoliang of Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the construction of some sections of the project was simply stopped at all costs.
Nepal hopes to build the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the country.
All walks of life and the media in Nepal have given positive reports on the completion of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The political forces of various factions in Nepal have always been at odds, but their positions and policies are surprisingly consistent in promoting China-Nepal economic and trade relations. Bastola, a member of the Standing Committee of the ruling Nepali Congress Party and former Foreign Minister, told this reporter that the official opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is also very important for Nepalese.
The opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway can shorten the land transportation time of trade between China and major Nepalese cities from 12 to 18 days to less than one week. He said that what the Nepalese government is most looking forward to is that the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will reach Nepal in the future.
Mr. Regmi, Chairman of the China Research Center in Nepal and a famous strategic analyst, said that the Nepalese people expect the railway from Beijing to Lhasa to reach Kathmandu and are convinced that it will never be threatened by China's military and political interference. He said that the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will help Nepal to appear on the world political stage more independently.
"A real trip to heaven"
Today, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has ended the days when there were no railway trains in Tibet. Moreover, from the first day of operation, this railway has been closely linked with modern tourism and other service industries, which is probably unique in the history of highway construction in all countries of the world.
Once upon a time, the snow-capped mountains, grasslands, beautiful Lama Temple, Hoh Xil, Tanggula Mountain and Tuotuo River were so far away that people who have been to Tibet rarely saw them. Now, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will be like a huge gallery, showing this mysterious scenery directly to thousands of ordinary tourists. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway connects a series of famous tourist attractions, which almost contains the essence of the ancient Tang, Fan and Dao culture for thousands of years. It is reported that relevant travel agencies in Japan have launched a special tour line to watch the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which has attracted many Japanese railway fans. Some travel agencies also dubbed the Qinghai-Tibet Railway "Sky Train", which made people yearn for it. Ms Erica, a resident of Berlin, also thinks that this will be a real "trip to heaven".