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Tibet train leads to Nathu-La buzz
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| Tibet train leads to Nathu-La buzz | | The Asian Age[Tuesday, August 08, 2006 10:10] | By Kaushik Mitter
Lhasa (Tibet), August 7 - As the 30-hour-long train ride from Lanzhou in the heart of western China, traversing almost 2,000 km across the Gobi Desert and then the plateau known as the Roof of the World, finally rolled into the Tibetan capital?s spanking new railway station on the dot of 10.30 pm Sunday, and the brilliantly-lit Potala Palace shimmered magically in the night sky on the short journey into town, the buzz in this modern city once fabled as Shangri-La appeared to be centred around Nathu-La, and what the reopening of that pass signified for Tibet?s new place in the sun.
Liu Hui, of the Foreign Cultural Exchange Association of China?s Tibet Autonomous Region, acknowledged as much at his welcome dinner for a visiting delegation of Indian journalists on Monday evening, when he talked about the excitement generated by the reopening of Nathu-La for border trade just five days after the first train of the Qinghai-Tibet railway rolled into Lhasa on July 1. The Nathu-La Pass is just a little over five hours? drive from this city, and there is a lot of speculation about when travel and tourism between India and Tibet will become easier as a result.
The reality, of course, is that the pass has just been opened for limited border trade, and even preliminary negotiations are yet to begin between New Delhi and Beijing about the movement of people, tourists or otherwise, across this land route. The defence authorities in India have expressed a number of fears centred around security if free movement of people is permitted across this pass.
But however long it takes, the excitement is quite evident here, and more among some ordinary citizens than Chinese officialdom. A young monk at the historic Jokhang Monastery (a stone's throw away from Potala), Tashi Tsering (name changed on request), became quite animated on discovering that this correspondent was an Indian from New Delhi, and, moving away from the accompanying Chinese interpreter, said in broken English how much he hoped to be able to cross the Nathu-La Pass and revisit Dharamshala, where he had been as a child, and also fulfil a long-held dream of going to Rumtek (monastery) in Sikkim. Just outside the Jokhang, in the bustling Barkhor Square, a stallholder hawking incense sticks made in Bangalore (who also sought anonymity) had no such communication problems and in a mixture of Hindi and English spoke fondly of his days in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Dharamshala, and said that reading about Nathu-La had raised his hopes that he could one day go back for a visit to India.
Back to the train.
For someone used to the best provided by the Rajdhanis and Shatabdis back home, the Tibet railway is luxury taken one leap further. Much has already been written about the Chinese engineering feat in laying tracks across the frozen tundra, making it possible for the train to reach speeds of nearly 100 kmph in the frozen earth areas and upto 20 kmph more in the non-frozen zone; one of the real attractions is the dining car with a live kitchen attached which functioned with a chef and his team of assistants churning out piping hot six-course meals to hungry passengers from early morning to late night, virtually without a break. The train is also wet, with beer flowing and the bar functioning virtually from departure time till minutes before arrival in Lhasa.
Much had also been made of the lack of oxygen as the train reached the Tanggula Pass, the highest point on the line (5,072 metres), much higher than Lhasa, which stands at 3,650 metres. Elaborate announcements had been made about the state of physical fitness required of passengers, and about the oxygen supplies which had been provided in every compartment and coach. This of course in addition to the entire train being pressurised, much like an aircraft is. But on the entire journey, there was no sign of any passenger actually suffering from major oxygen difficulties.
There are a lot of added touches ? plasma TV sets in every compartment (though showing only Chinese TV and films, a bit of a drag for the train?s sprinkling of foreign passengers), announcements in English and Chinese on ticker machines throughout the train on the temperature outside as well as the time at which it would arrive at the next station. Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav might well find it profitable to take a ride on the Qinghai-Tibet railway sometime soon, just to pick up a few tips on what to do with the network he runs back home. |
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