China will soon open a new stretch of rail across Tibet

AS BIRTHDAY PRESENTS go, a 435km railway line that is expected to open this month in Tibet will be among the most lavish. To seekers of high-altitude thrills, it is one that will be cherished. The 37bn-yuan ($5.7bn) track extends from the region’s capital Lhasa eastward to the city of Nyingchi, which is Tibetan for “Throne of the Sun”. It is the region’s first electrified railway; its trains will be Tibet’s fastest. Officials call it a gift for the Communist Party’s 100th birthday, which will be officially celebrated on July 1st.

But the new line is only part of what China calls the “project of the century”. This involves building Tibet’s second rail link with China’s interior at a total cost that state media say could be about ten times that of the Lhasa-Nyingchi stretch, with even greater engineering challenges yet to come. The section about to open was no pushover. Tunnels comprise nearly half of its length. Workers had to brave landslides, poisonous gas from broken rock, intense cold as well as an oxygen-starved atmosphere at more than 5,000 metres above sea level—roughly the altitude of Mount Everest’s base camps. When completed in 2030, the railway will connect Lhasa with Chengdu, the capital of neighbouring Sichuan province. At a maximum speed of 160kph, the...