Train to Lhasa - Part I

China has earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records with the highest altitude train line in the world. With global warming taken into account, there may be some severe problems with the thawing of the permafrost, but not until more than twenty years from now. 

Shortly after our departure from Golmud, Amdo province.

Some Amdo Province Tibetans. They disembarked at the town of Amdo, to be replaced by Han Chinese soldiers and tourists.

While I was expecting a series of snow capped spires and treacherous cliff-side traverses, most of the ride bore witness to the fact that this was a plateau ride. We were on the Tibetan Plateau, after all!

The Last of Golmud

For those in search of Chinese idiosyncrasies, Golmud may satisfy.

During a five hour bank session I witnessed a young child urinate on the bank floor. This was small compensation for my day wasted at the bank, but here it is, nonetheless.

They don't call it a movie theatre, or a cinema in Golmud. No. They call it the "Cultural Propaganda Golmud Centre." To be fair, though, most of the movies are robot flicks. Only some are Chinese history propaganda features.

NO THROWING THE GROUND WITH SNIRE AND VARIA

Golmud: Scenes

Those who go to Golmud are probably there for a stopover, en route to Lhasa, Tibet, or else trying to finagle a legal Chinese permit to visit the Tibet Autonomous Zone. I was of the latter camp. It took about six days to secure permission to visit the ever-sensitive Chinese Tibet, though a well-timed visit to Golmud could result in permit acquisition within three business days. This is the facade to look out for, the China International Travel Service (CITS) building, a never-never land where all the magic of Tibet permits takes place. Head straight for the fourth floor. Don't wake the upper-echelon managers sleeping at their desks.

Near the central square of Golmud is ... green umbrella heaven.

Golmud: City of Immigrants

China has been promoting a "Go West" campaign for a while now. The fierce competition of the wildly overpopulated east has been reason enough for families to make the drive westward to provinces like Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Here are a few of the faces of Golmud, a dominantly Han Chinese city in the former Tibetan province of Amdo - now Qinghai.

These girls work at the Postal Savings Bank. They took me in a taxi to a larger branch office which dealt in Western Union money transfers.

Man of the bottle beverages.

Uighur boy roasting mutton.

Another hard luck story - one of the down and outs.