Xining - Lhasa Train Ride part 1

From Xining Train Station to Lhasa, K917/8, the whole journey is 1972Km. The ticket fee is RMB226 for a hard seat, RMB523 for a hard sleeper and RMB816 for a soft sleeper. At 20:07, it leaves Xining and arrives in Lhasa at 22:30 the following day. It leaves Lhasa for Xining at 09:32 and arrives in Xining at 12:19 the third day. The stations that it passes are Hargai, Keke, Delingha, Golmud, Tuotuohe, Amdo, Nacku, Damsung.

Daylight was coming to an end when we boarded the train during the previous night so most of the photos taken were of the interiors of the train. The following day, I spent hours by the corridor window taking photos.

Pardon me for the reflection and the colours of the photos running a little off. I'll attempt a more informative write-up another time. Meanwhile, enjoy!
---------------------------------------------

Thanks to Google Maps and Panoramio that I was able to trace these photos back with some names of location. There were commentaries running in the train but it was too noisy to be heard.

Photography enthusiasts took the seats by the corridor, armed with their DSLRs. Seriously, I was so glad I had with me my 450D and with my modest 18-200mm Sigma, whose range allowed me many flexible shots. Without dslrs and lenses with a moderately powerful range, you are for sure to miss out a lot unless you're doing a road trip which allows you many photo stops. The mountains, rivers, terrains, pastures, people, houses, animals are all different along the train ride and they all pass with such speed that point-and-shoots will have difficulty capturing. This is your ultimate trip for camera fodder. So, bring a good one! You can forget about warm clothes but you MUST bring your CAMERA with many batteries and memory cards. During my 7-day trip, I had two camera batteries (one for use while the backup is charging) and used up all 4 of my 4GB SD cards. Seriously, there are so many brilliant things to capture in Tibet. Just a bus ride by a mountain could easily get a quarter of my SD card filled.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway was impressive. It stretches across many kilometres in harsh and frozen terrains, crossing several mountain passes, including the FenghuoShan Tunnel, the highest railway tunnel in the world.

Some interesting reads:
Schaefer's Website on Qinghai-Tibet Railway's Construction
English translation of German Wikipedia on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway
Qingzang(Tibet) Railway on Wikipedia
Concerns of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway on BBC


I woke up in the morning, not realising it was only 7am! Chinese people wake up early. Much earlier, I was already hearing the rouse of several passengers as I was sleepily shifting about in bed. The train had just passed Golmud which I had missed. These mountains are near Caishichang and the Pian Stone Factory


Near South Mountain Kou


Near South Mountain Kou


Nice, blue river in a gorge


Whitish clay mountains


A truckload of trucks


Tunnels for passage of rivers and streams


Buildings by the gorge


Geermu General Yard Cement Factory


Somewhere near Wushisi Daoban (54 Daoban). The Qinghai-Tibet (Xining-Ge'ermu-Lhasa) Highway crossing a river.


Rivers meandering along the mountain ranges


Truck by the mountain and tunnel passage for cars going through the mountain.


Rocks were arranged in grids to protect the railway during earthquakes




National road winding through mountain passes.


Somewhere near Nichitai


Near Wushiba and Wushiju Daoban (58 and 59 Daoban)


Dried rivers

"The Kunlun Mountains - Peak Yuzhu reaches 6,178 meters above sea level and features modern glacier landforms on both its northern and southern slopes. While its southern slope stretches with a gentle gradient, the northern is steep. The glacier end on the southern slope is about 5,100 meters above sea level, not a great challenge for most skilled mountaineers. The road conditions on the northern slope are relatively challenging, and all three glaciers on the slope lead to the summit, requiring good mountaineering skills. All these traits make Peak Yuzhu an optimal destination for both professional and amateur mountaineers." [By Xiao Huaiyuan] - http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-08/16/content_666239.htm

Among the mountains you can see in the Kunlun mountain range are Bentoushan, Xiaohongshan and Dianyingshan at the north and Zhongyangshan, Heishan and Jianshan at the south of the railway. It is around this region (particularly East Kunlun Mountains) that scientists in geology and related fields have studied on the Xidatan rock series, which comprised of mylonite, gneiss and granite. (W Chen, http://www.springerlink.com/index/X1K1318526656U00.pdf)

Yuzhu Peak and the Kunlun Mountains


Passengers all eager to take photos


Strange clouds on top of the mountain


Glacial Mountains


My hitamputeh shirt with the Kunlun Mountains




What a feat transportation from Xining to Tibet was! Construction of railway and roads on permafrost.


Our lunch on the train


Man reading newspaper


Man savouring a slice of watermelon

The Qinghai -Tibet Train, China

When we got on to the platform, we searched for the rail car labelled 5 as printed on our tickets. We found the rail car we were supposed to hop on. The place was packed with people and their suitcases. The passage was blocked as passengers tried to give way to each other while they looked for their cabins. Ours was Cabin 7, beds 14. Mine was the one on top, my sister in the middle while my mum took the bottom bed. It was crazy! We had a difficult time trying to fit our luggage into the cabin, much less keep it under the bed with the tight spaces around. If we placed our bags on the beds, they should be pushed to the inner side for fear of theft. We shared our cabin with three Chinese from Guangzhou, whom we befriended soon enough. Our rail car was mostly filled with people from several different tour groups, mostly from Guangzhou.

The train left at 8pm from Xining and arrived in Lhasa at 9.30pm. We have been advised to bring food to the train. Instant food is a convenient choice as hot water is easily available. The restaurant serves food but it must be pre-ordered before you go to the restaurant to eat. The food is served at certain times. Food from the trolleys that go along the rail cars should not be bought as these are overnight food and may cause tummy upset.

We took a tour around the train and we realised there were three types of seating in various rail cars. There were those with seats only and those with beds, of which we have the hard sleeper (6 beds with no door) and the soft sleeper (4 beds with door). We had opted for the hard sleeper because I figured a trip wouldn't be fun without a little bit of difficulty - no pain, no gain. I was glad we made that choice because our cabin mates from Guangzhou were friendly people and one actually shared stories with my mum about his trip to Mongolia. I also want to go!

The soft sleeper cabin is a lot more comfortable with only 4 beds. Each bed has a tv on its wall with the controls attached to wall at the other end of the bed. They had wall cushions lined along the wall for comfort when you sit on the bed. There was definitely more vertical space as there are just two beds on each side of the wall.

Each rail car has two toilets. Though they are not dirty on most occasions, they are always smelly as the water amount from the flush is miserly. We have a wash basins area at one end of the rail car.

The lights in the train go out at ten at night with prior announcements about ten to fifteen minutes before the lights are switched off. After I pushed my camera bag to the end of my bed, I arranged myself for sleep. Soon, I fell asleep out of exhaustion, without brushing my teeth. It had been a wonderful day, almost unreal. Just a day ago, I was dashing from one place to another trying to get tickets for this trip, trying to push away the very possibility of not being able to make it and now, that is all history. If there is anything, the little misfortune made me cherish this trip more than I would have and I enjoyed thoroughly including the visits to toilets that were so unearthly smelly and dirty. They were all part of a brilliant experience! Like the old saying goes, no pain, no gain. I am embarking on the highest railway in the world!

Tibet, here I come!


This is the top bed. There is barely enough vertical space for you to sit. Throughout the journey, I sat either at the bottom bed or on the seat along the corridor, climbing up only when I needed to rest.


The beds and walls had bars and handles which allowed an easy climb for me to the top bed.


There is my sister's luggage pushed to the inner side of the bed.


Soft sleeper with individual tv for each bed and cushion lined along the bed. The hinged lever on the right is actually a step for you to climb to the upper beds.


Each bed also has an oxygen supply outlet and a hinged-netted shelf which you can pull down to use.


Oxygen supply vent when the lid is lifted.


Oxygen supply vent when the lid is closed.


Hot water dispenser.


Bins for recyclable and non-recyclable waste


Caution signs on doors, just like the ones we had on Nippon Maru.


Wash basin area


Toilet


Seat by the corridor. There is a white switch on the right which allows you to switch off the speakers outside your cabin.


View from our cabin window


The restaurant


Our delicious beef cup noodles

Heading to Xining railway station

After our adventure on the sand buggy at the Qinghai Lake, we headed back to town to have dinner before getting on the train that brought us to Lhasa. As our journey mostly had us glued to our seats on the coach, I was vigilant so as not to miss a single scene that could be interesting.

The reflection on the windows remain a challenge to my photo-taking as I picked spots on the window where the scene is clear. However, this is difficult with scenes that required immediate snaps.


We passed a graveyard that was on the hill.


Planting fields were just about anyway except the city area. This one has terraced hill slopes.


Petrol stations in Xining had pointy rooftops.


We went passed a church.


In China, I generally see people gathered seated on the floor by the street.


Building with Chinese architecture in the midst of high-rise buildings


At the traffic light.


We had similar-looking meals all throughout the trip. These are specially prepared for tourists. They are Chinese dishes, mostly vegetables to keep us healthy as we will be undergoing drastic altitude change during the train ride. To my disappointment, they continued to serve similar dishes in Tibet instead of something more local. So, we requested for a Tibetan meal on our last day. Our guide arranged us a trip to a Tibetan restaurant on one of the main street in Lhasa. The story of this will come in the later post.


More high-rise buildings are located around the Xining train station area. I was rather impressed that some of these high-rise were built right next to the hill. They must have done something to prevent the soil from eroding, especially when a section of the hill seemed to have been cut off.


It was chaos at the Xining railway station. It was extremely crowded with people. Before we could enter into the building, we had our bags scanned. The entrance is barricaded for only those with a valid train ticket to enter the building. At the doorway, our tickets were checked again. Inside, the halls were dark and packed with people. The lights from the high ceiling and the many windows in the hall failed to illuminate the room.

When we were called to board the train, we lined up. But, other passengers came from all sides to go through the door, oblivious to the queue. A common behaviour of some people in China is that they push to get to their destination. They push old people too! They push even when the queue isn't moving at all!

Boat ride and Sand buggy - Qinghai Lake

The bus took us to a sandy patch along the lake. The tour guide was suggesting in Chinese that the elderly tourists could take the jeep while the younger ones could go on the "motor", which I only realised later that she meant the sand buggy. Whatever she was going on about the "motor", I was getting excited. The thought of doing something outdoor after the lengthy coach ride thrilled me, especially with the weather looking so beautiful.

The bus made a turn at this gate where white canvas tents lined in a row at a distance. We alighted to be greeted by many nomads trying to push a sale of souveniers or of photo shoots with their animals.

As usual, I ventured around with my camera.


We were ushered to queue at a pier. I didn't know what the plan was but followed instructions, all the while taking pictures of what caught my attention.


The water was so clear that the bed was easily visible.


Half of the tourists in front of the queue went on the boat.




The Qinghai Lake has been split into 4; Three were much smaller lakes than the fourth. See aerial view of the lake here. I supposed we were taken by boat from the edge of one of the smaller lakes to the sandy intersection where sand buggies were waiting for us to get on.


My sis took the wheels for the first half of our journey and I took over the return trip.


She was one hell of a rider. The buggy literally flew when it hit a hump.


I hopped on for a photo while this guy wanted to take the buggy from me. Pumping up the acceleration of the buggy required some thumb muscle power because you have to push a small lever with your thumb to keep the acceleration going. Otherwise, the engine would just stall, which it did on two occasions. As I got on to the final stretch of the road, I was using my wrist to keep the pressure of my thumb on the lever.


The largest part of the Qinghai Lake


The little children came with their little goats to ask tourists to take photos with them for a small fee. We have been warned by the tour guide to reject their requests as the prices hike after the photo shoot.










This pose is the first to come to several others


We caught sight of Discovery Channel playing live and I managed some shots before the owner shooed the young horse away from the female.


Alas, me on the wheels!




Nomads gathered by the big inscribed boulder


Back in the coach and on the road again. The next stop is the Xining Railway Station.