Wandering the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to Lhasa

[CanuckMariner]

The first railway in China's Tibet Autonomous Region has been opened, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway (http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzI0NTY5ODQw.html), the world's highest. This is a very good NHK documentary about 51:50 minutes long, wait for commercial to finish before it begins. :costumed-smiley-007

[haven]

Wikipedia provides a graph that shows the high altitudes traversed by the rail line. Looks like 90% of the 1100 km section between Golmud and Lhasa is above 4000 meters (13,000 feet).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a0/Qinghai-Tibet_Railway_Vertical_Sectional_Diagram.png

Construction over the permafrost section required techniques similar to those used in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.