China opens railway to Tibet

China: China's first train from Beijing to Tibet set out on Saturday carrying students and thrill seekers on the world's highest railway, which critics fear could devastate the Himalayan region's unique Buddhist culture.

The train pulled out of the Chinese capital 1330 hrs, GMT after President Hu Jintao led a ceremony on Saturday morning in the western city of Golmud to inaugurate service on the railway.

The railway, an engineering marvel that crosses mountain passes up to 5,000 meters (16,500 feet) high, is part of government efforts to develop China's poor west and bind restive ethnic areas to the booming east.

But critics warn that it will bring a flood of Chinese migrants, diluting Tibet's culture and threatening its fragile environment.

The mood aboard the train from Beijing on a 48-hour, 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) journey to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa was festive.

''I feel very proud,'' said Guo Chaoying, a 40-year-old civil servant from Beijing who said he was going to Lhasa on business. ''We Chinese built this rail line ourselves, and it's a world first, the highest. It shows our ability in high-technology.''

The first train on the line pulled out of Golmud on Saturday morning carrying about 600 government officials and railway workers. Minutes later, a train left Lhasa for Golmud. A third train left the western city of Chengdu later in the day for Lhasa.

The specially designed train cars are equipped with double-paned windows to protect against high-altitude ultraviolet radiation and outlets for oxygen masks beside every seat for passengers who need help coping with the thin air.

Guo was riding in the lowest-price car, which had only thinly padded seats and no bunks, but said he didn't worry about resting.

''I'm too excited anyway,'' he said. ''There's going to be too much to see.''

A few cars down, Tan Ji, a 40-year-old electrical engineer from suburban Beijing, was unpacking his cameras in his luxury compartment, which had four beds and a television.

''But no World Cup. I already asked,'' he said, pointing at the television, which was showing a movie.

Tan said he planned to spend 1 1/2 days sightseeing in Tibet, then fly home.

''I am really just going for the experience, because it's a first,'' Tan said.

The opening of the $4.2 billion (€3.4 billion) railway coincided with a major political anniversary - the 85th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party.

''This is a magnificent feat by the Chinese people, and also a miracle in world railway history,'' Hu said at the nationally televised ceremony in Golmud.

Hu cut a giant red ribbon with golden scissors and musicians in traditional Tibetan and Chinese costumes beat drums and cymbals as the train pulled out.

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On Friday, three protesters from the US, Canada and Britain were detained after unfurling a banner at Beijing's main train station reading, ''China's Tibet Railway, Designed to Destroy.''

Others planned to protest Saturday outside Chinese embassies abroad.

Chinese officials acknowledge that few Tibetans are employed by the railway but say that number should increase. The government also says it is taking precautions to protect the environment.

The official Xinhua News Agency lashed out at critics on Saturday, calling them hypocrites who want Tibet to remain undeveloped and a ''stereotyped cultural specimen for them to enjoy.''

''Why shouldn't Tibet progress like the rest of the world?'' the commentary said.

The 1,140-kilometer (710-mile) final stretch of the line linking Golmud with Lhasa crosses some of the world's most forbidding terrain on the treeless Tibetan plateau.

Xinhua reported on Saturday afternoon that the train from Lhasa had crossed the 5,072-meter-high (16,737-foot-high) Tanggula Pass, which the government says is the highest point on any railway in the world.

Passengers signed health declarations saying they understood the risks of traveling at such high altitude. They were required to declare that they didn't suffer from heart disease or other ailments that might make them susceptible to altitude sickness.

''It's convenient. It's fast,'' said Jashi Tsering, an ethnic Tibetan who graduated recently from the Beijing Police Academy and was headed home to look for work.

Tsering bought a 195 yuan (US$25; €20) student-price hard-seat ticket for the journey. He said that before this service, getting home to Tibet by train and then bus took four to five days.

The railway is projected to help double tourism revenues in Tibet by 2010 and cut transport costs for goods by 75 percent, according Xinhua.

Communist troops marched into Tibet in 1950, and Beijing says the region has been Chinese territory for centuries. But Tibet was effectively independent for much of that time.

The railway's highest station is in Nagqu, a town at 4,500 meters (14,850) in the plateau's rolling grasslands.