The Train to Tibet – Day 1

This is Mike’s first stab at a blog entry.

We’ve spent the past 24 hours on a train, starting in Chengdu, Sichuan and are currently headed for Golmud. Qinghai. Tomorrow we will continue on to Lhasa, Tibet.

I’ve been calling this a prison on rails mainly due to the interior décor, the sleeping arrangements, and the scenery (more on this later). That’s not to say I’m not enjoying it – it’s a unique experience and I might feel the same way about 44 hours in jail.

A 6'x6'x7' room really can sleep 4.

When the room feels cramped, try the 2' wide corridor. 

The sleeping arrangements are tight. We spent last night in a 6’x6’ cabin with 2 other people, arranged in bunk beds separated by about 18”. Our roommates were friendly enough, even though we only had one mutually understood phrase between us. Thankfully the snorer of the two left the train today, so we are now down to 3 and I’m looking forward to a better sleep tonight.

It would be misleading to call today’s scenery spectacular, but it was certainly a spectacle. I used to read a lot of National Geographic when I was a kid, and they’d often contain a mix of articles describing spectacular natural beauty, followed by articles about toxic Soviet wastelands and nuclear disaster sites. Since then I’ve been fortunate to see plenty of natural beauty, so it was worthwhile today to see something so decidedly in the wasteland category.

The midpoint of today’s journey was Lanzhou, a city of 3.3 million in Gansu province. The sight from the tracks was something to see: A city surrounded in mountains, only semi-visible through the smog. Endless rows of identical high-rise apartment buildings, actively under construction next to endless rows of seemingly abandoned unfinished high-rise apartment buildings. Other apartment developments surround a nuclear power plant. Giant leaky pipes cross over a river, gushing brown liquid. Massive piles of garbage are everywhere.

Apparently there are no NIMBY types in Lanzhou.

The picture makes it look better than it is.

This went on for about 30km, until the city of Xining, which looked slightly better. My appetite for wasteland watching is now fulfilled!