Travel Asia

This is a unique experience of taking the world’s highest train ride which is from Beijing to Lhasa and experience the one of its kind tour that is mainly carried out in the comforts of your compartment through a full-sized picture window.

The train with an official name of Qinghai-Tibet Train travels for 47 hours and 28 minutes, covers 4,064 kilometers and passes 675 bridges that are covered in permafrost. Riders are having a hard time deciding which is the bigger adventure - the train ride to the top of the world or Tibet itself. The whole experience is simply fantastic.

As soon as the train starts rolling, the scenery flows past your window like a movie. Tiny Chinese villages pass by with boys leading ox carts. You will see a herd of yaks followed by a Tibetan nomad herding them at the same time waving at the passing train. The snowcapped mountains in the distance stands as silent guards amidst the obvious absence of people, buildings or parking lots. You and your fellow passengers thankfully put away all the connections to the modern world to gawk and soak in the once-in-a-lifetime views that is passing by your window.

In our modern time where trains and railroads almost become things of the past, the Tibet Train opens up a whole new era of train travel. The trip passes into a storybook territory as well as breaking new ground with truly innovative technology in train travelling. The Tibet Train costs an amazing US $4 billion dollars and rises to an altitude of 5,028 meters. It was one of those projects that were labeled “bound to fail” but proved to be wrong in the end as visitors now regularly flock to this once isolated country.

The Lhasa Station was built to resemble the architecture of the Potala. Burning juniper and sage at sunrise and sunset purifies the air of this holy city. These fragrant bonfires can be seen on Barkor Square, street corners, temples and even in the hotel lobbies. All day long, there is a stream of praying pilgrims making a clockwise circuit, known as the kora, around the Jokhang Monastery. In the nearby Barkhor Square, vendors sell yak butter, prayer wheels and mandalas. The unforgettable vision of the chanting monks on pilgrimages, nomads and tribesmen from far-flung provinces in the dim light of yak butter lamp is a heady one.

The sightseeing options at Lhasa are almost as dizzying as the altitude. The Potala towers over the city as a constant reminder that Lhasa has always been a holy city. The Potala is an architectural masterpiece as well as a symbol of Tibet’s past and hope for the future. The Sera Monastery in the outskirts of the town has its own kora that winds around Sera passing herds of yaks, rock paintings and tiny hermitages for monks on retreat. Aside from being charming and striking with its golden stapes rising into the blue sky above, Sera Monastery is also an active center of learning for Tibetan monks. In the afternoon, the monks here practice their debating techniques. These debates are done in the courtyard with the Tibetan Buddhist monks shouting, cajoling and badgering their opponents with sharp claps of the hand to emphasize their points.

Encircled by mountain ranges in every direction like the Karakoram in the west, the Kunlun in the north and the Himalayas in the south and east, this magical city is inaccessible but today Lhasa is no longer remote. Aside from the new railway, there are already highways that crisscross the Tibetan Plateau. The rough road to the Mount Everest base camp is also being repaved so that the bearers of the Olympic torch can announce the Beijing Games with the world’s most photogenic backdrop. Tibetans are coping well with the onslaught of arrivals of different people. They always have a ready smile and a friendly wave to all the people.

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