Travel Theme: Height

Ailsa at Where’s My Backpack? urges us to show something of Height. My entry is taken from the train ride to Tibet over the great plateau in the Himalayas. For more about Height – click here.

The Tang Gu La or Tanggu Pass  is a wide mountain pass over 5000 metres elevation used by the Quinghai – Tibet Railway to cross the Tanggula Mountains. On August 24, 2005, rail track for the Qinghai–Tibet Railway was completed 28 kilometres to the WNW of the highway, reaching 5072 meters (16,640 feet)—the world’s highest, 255 m higher than Cóndor station, Peru.

We travelled Peru 1987 and Tibet 2009 – both fantastic adventures. I had the great luck of catching this sign, Tang Gu La, from the train window. We were never allowed to go outside for photos, and the train rarely stopped anywhere. The compartments all had extra oxygen. The feeling is not possible to describe or explain.

Kina och tågresan till Tibet 2009 431

21 reaktioner på ”Travel Theme: Height

  1. I can well understand not wanting to miss a thing. I am also the one with my nose to the glass when I am on train rides in foreign countries. Shame that you could not get out on this ride, but it was still a unique memory nonetheless! Certainly exemplifies ‘height’

  2. What trips Ann Christine ! I do admire your skill in getting that photo 😉
    It really looks like you are just stood on the platform Lol

  3. Your photo says it all … and I can truly image what a fantastic adventure both experience must have been. I haven’t been that high, expect on my pain killers … the highest I been must be Sear’s tower in Chicago .. does it count ??? *smile

  4. So, is that a railway station in the middle of ‘nowhere’? What a fantastic adventure. It was fascinating to learn about the extra oxygen in the train carriages. Imagine what it was like for the people who built the railway; did they need extra oxygen I wonder?

    • I don’t know if it was anything but a platform. The train never stopped….What I do know is that thousands of workers died during the railway construction. They had to run down poles into the permafrost to make it stable enough for the trains. Of course the Chinese used labourers from Tibet who could stand the thin air better, but severe cold and thin air together isn’t good for anyone.

Lämna ett svar till Forestwoodfolkart Avbryt svar

Denna webbplats använder Akismet för att minska skräppost. Lär dig om hur din kommentarsdata bearbetas.