China's Qinghai-Tibet railway, extolled as a triumph for Beijing and a symbol of colonization by exiled Tibetans, will become the world's highest railway when it opens on Saturday.
BEIJING: China's Qinghai-Tibet railway, extolled as a triumph for Beijing and a symbol of colonization by exiled Tibetans, will become the world's highest railway when it opens on Saturday.
While exiled Tibetans fear the railway will result in a flood of Han Chinese into the region, the central government sees it as a project to tap natural resources on the vast Tibetan plateau and bring the region out of poverty.
Over the past weeks, thousands of workers have put the finishing touches on the railway line that will be inaugurated on the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, who was Tibet's top leader during a crackdown on Tibet's fervent independence movement from 1988 to 1992, is reportedly preparing to commemorate the opening in Golmud, in Qinghai province, 1,972 kilometers from the line's terminus in Lhasa.
Work on the line began in 1950 but was suspended after the section from the Qinghai provincial capital of Xining to Golmud was finished.
Work resumed in 2001 with the government pouring some 20 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) into the project.
As of Saturday, travellers departing Beijing will be able to reach Lhasa about 4,561 kilometers away in two days.
"The project is symbolic of China's development of the western regions," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
"The railway will fundamentally change the backward situation of the region's infrastructure, it will raise the living standards of all ethnic minorities and will strengthen the rapid development of the tourist industry."
With a third Tibetan airport slated to open also in July, regional authorities estimate that by 2010 the number of tourist arrivals to the Roof of the World will double from this year's 2.5 million.
By 2010, tourist revenues in the region will rise to 5.8 billion yuan a year, they said.
For exiled Tibetans, plans are in the works to protest the railway line on Saturday at Chinese embassies and consulates worldwide. Protesters have been urged to wear black armbands of mourning during the protests.
"The railway will have devastating consequences for our people as Beijing wants to submerge our population, dilute our culture and exploit our lands," said Ngawang Woeber, a former Tibetan political prisoner who is organizing the protests from the Dharamsala, India.
The Dharamsala is where the Dalai Lama's exiled government has been based after the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader sought refuge in the northern Indian hill town following an aborted 1959 uprising in Lhasa.
Although Tibetans fear that the influx of more Chinese into Tibet will erode the region's unique Buddhist traditions, Chinese tourist agents are touting the railway as the world's highest with much of the line 4,000 meters above sea level and its highest point reaching 5,072 meters.
"A trip to Tibet is considered by many Chinese as a trip to heaven and is a dream of many," Zhao Hongyu, an agent at the China Youth Travel Service, said.
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