gular passenger trains to Lhasa: The railway to Lhasa in Tibet has been completed, and the first regular passenger trains started running on 1 July 2006. There are now 3 trains a day to Lhasa, including a daily express from Beijing and Xian. These are modern air-conditioned Chinese Railways trains, with soft & hard class sleepers, soft & hard class seats & a restaurant car. Photos of the new Beijing-Lhasa train interior. Train times & fares for the principal trains are shown below. A train Guangzhou (near Hong Kong) to Lhasa is due to start on 1 October 2006, and a train from Shanghai may be introduced later. Right: The destination plate on the side of the Chengdu-Lhasa train. Photo courtesy of Keith Crane.
Deluxe tourist trains: Deluxe tourist trains are due to start running some time in 2007, but dates, times and fares have yet to be announced. They will be marketed as Tangula Express, running from Beijing, Xian and Shanghai to Lhasa with luxury sleeping-cars with double beds, private shower & toilet, restaurant cars and lounge-observation cars. The Tangula Express trains are a joint venture between Chinese Railways and a western company called RailPartners.
The highest railway in the world: The new Qinghai-Tibet Railway is the highest in the world, climbing from 2,829m above sea level at Golmud (Geermu) to 3,641m at Lhasa, much of it built on permafrost. Its highest point is in the Tanggula Pass, at 16,640 feet (just over 5,000m) above sea level. Because of the lack of oxygen at that altitude, all passenger coaches have extra oxygen pumped into them, and oxygen is available to passengers through tubes if they have problems. See the photos below. Before the railway was built, travellers had to take a train to Golmud then a gruelling 48 hour bus journey to Lhasa.
Permit for Tibet required: In addition to a Chinese visa, foreigners still require a special permit to enter Tibet, although there is talk of discontinuing this requirement in the near future, so please check. The only way to get a permit is through a Chinese travel agency, for example ChinaHighlights.com who can arrange both trains and tailor-made tours.
How to buy tickets: Bookings open 10 days in advance. In the first month of operation of the new line, tickets are reported as selling out almost as soon as bookings open, with no sign of demand diminishing. Hopefully it will become easier to get tickets in a few months' time, when you may be able to buy tickets through ChinaHighlights.com or www.chinatripadvisor.com. Alternatively, you can try buying tickets yourself at the station, arranging a permit separately .
All trains are air-conditioned with extra oxygen available, and have soft class & hard class sleepers & seats, and restaurant car. The soft sleepers have 4-berth compartments, complete with personal LCD televisions, occasionally showing English language movies.
