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  WWF 30 Jun 06
New railway line threatens Tibetan Plateau
Beijing, China – With the opening of a new railway line through the Tibetan Plateau, and the increased number of travellers who will visit the area as a result of it, WWF and TRAFFIC are calling for conservation measures to protect the world's largest and highest plateau.

Billed as the highest railway in the world, the Qinghai-Tibet line will run over 1,000km from central China to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

Environmental groups, including WWF, are concerned that the railway will threaten fragile ecosystems.

With an average elevation of 4,000m and covering an area of 2.5 million km2, the Tibetan Plateau shelters a wide array of unique species, including the Tibetan antelope, Tibetan gazelle, wild yak, blue sheep, snow leopard, brown bear, Bengal tiger and black-necked crane.

The plateau is also the source of almost all of Asia's major rivers, including the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong and Indus.

“Because of its high elevation, the ecosystem here is extremely fragile,” said Dawa Tsering, Head of WWF China’s Program Office in Lhasa. “Once damaged, it is extremely difficult to reverse. Integrating the needs of local development with conserving Tibet’s biodiversity is in need of urgent attention.”

With the completion of the new line scheduled for 1 July, WWF and TRAFFIC plan on distributing brochures to train passengers and visitors to the region (in English and Chinese), asking them to refrain from buying products made from such endangered species as tigers and Tibetan antelopes.

“The sale of souvenirs and other products made from endangered species is growing due to tourist consumption, and is increasing pressure on local biodiversity,” Tsering added. “Tourists can make a difference simply by not purchasing these products.”

The Tibetan Plateau remained fairly “untouched” by travellers from outside the region before the 1980s, when tourism first began. In 1980, visitors numbered 1,059, of which 95 per cent came from abroad.

However, the past few years have seen a surging increase of tourists, numbering 140,000 in 2002 and 1.22 million in 2004,. This represents an increase of over 1,000 times the 1980 level. At present, 92 per cent are domestic tourists.

“International and local laws have guaranteed that killing wild tigers and other protected species for their parts isn’t legal anywhere in the world,” added Dr Xu Hongfa from TRAFFIC’s China Programme. ”But the killing of these animals will continue until the demand for buying them stops.”

Yahoo News 1 Jul 06
China opens world's highest railway
By Alexa Olesen, Associated Press Writer

ABOARD THE BEIJING-LHASA EXPRESS, China - China's first train from Beijing to Tibet set out Saturday carrying business travelers and thrill-seekers on the world's highest railway, which critics fear could devastate the Himalayan region's unique Buddhist culture.

The $4.2 billion railway, an engineering marvel that crosses mountain passes up to 16,500 feet high, is part of government efforts to develop China's poor west and bind restive ethnic areas to the booming east.

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

The mood was festive aboard the train from Beijing on the 48-hour, 2,500-mile journey to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. "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 specially designed train cars are equipped with double-paned windows to protect against high-altitude ultraviolet radiation, There are 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 he 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. Tan said he planned to spend 1 1/2 days sightseeing in Tibet, then fly home. "I'm really just going for the experience, because it's a first," Tan said.

The opening of the 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," President Hu Jintao said at a morning ceremony in the western city of Golmud to inaugurate service on the railway.

The first train on the line pulled out of Golmud 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 train from Beijing pulled out of the Chinese capital Saturday night.

On Friday, three protesters from the United States, 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 protests 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, 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 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 Saturday afternoon that the train from Lhasa had crossed the 16,737-foot Tanggula Pass, which the government calls 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.

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

Channel NewsAsia 1 Jul 06
China opens world's highest railway to Tibet
AFP

GOLMUD, China : China opened the world's highest railway on Saturday, linking the remote Himalayan region of Tibet with the rest of the country in a symbol of power that President Hu Jintao hailed a "miracle".

Hu launched the rail line at the mountain outpost of Golmud in China's far northwestern Qinghai province, with the event held to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. "The project is not only a magnificent feat in China's history of railway construction, it is also a great miracle for the world," Hu said. He then cut a ceremonial red ribbon as the first train with 900 passengers on board departed at 11:05 am (0305 GMT) for the 1,142-kilometre (708-mile) trip to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. Another train departed Lhasa for Golmud moments later amid carefully choreographed dancing at the station by Tibetan and Han Chinese in traditional costumes, with all the events broadcast on state-run television.

The trains, with extra oxygen pumped into the cabins to prevent passengers from suffering altitude sickness, will traverse a mountain pass sitting 5,072 metres (16,737 feet) above sea level as they follow the Tibetan plateau.

At a cost of 4.2 billion dollars, Hu said the train was an important part of China's historic efforts to modernise the country and further confirmation that the fast-developing nation was undisputably one of the world's great powers. "This success again shows the hard working and wise people of China have the courage, confidence and ability to continue to create miracles," Hu said. "We also have the courage, confidence and ability to stand among the advanced peoples of the world."

Aside from coinciding with the 85th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, the launch of the train line followed the completion of the Three Gorges Dam in May and a second manned Chinese space flight in October last year.

However the train project has drawn enormous controversy from those opposed to China's rule of Tibet, which began in 1950 when officially atheist Chinese troops marched in to "liberate" the devoutly Buddhist people of the region.

Critics argue it will allow the national majority Han Chinese to flood in to Tibet, leading to the devastation of the local Tibetan culture, as well as accelerate environmental degradation of the pristine region.

"China's Tibet railway has been engineered to destroy the very fabric of Tibetan identity," Lhadon Tethong, an exiled Tibetan and executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, said on Friday. "China plans to use the railway to transport Chinese migrants directly into the heart of Tibet in order to overwhelm the Tibetan population and tighten its stranglehold over our people."

Previously Han Chinese could only get to Tibet on slow, uncomfortable bus rides or on relatively expensive flights. Now, people can travel for 48 hours from Beijing to Lhasa on a train for under 50 dollars.

Tibetan rights groups called upon all Tibetans in exile to wear black armbands on Saturday to symbolise a nation in mourning, and to demonstrate in front of Chinese embassies and consulates around the world.

Tibet's most revered spirutual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959 amid a failed Tibetan uprising to establish a government-in-exile in the Indian hill station of Dharamsala, has been careful not to antagonise the Chinese over the train.

"If there is no political motivation and no hidden political agenda, the railway will be good for Tibet. This is why his holiness the Dalai Lama has declared his support for the project," his spokesman Thupten Samphel said. "But if it brings environmental damage to Tibet, if there are more Chinese colonists, then it will have a disastrous effect on the life of Tibetans in Tibet." - AFP /ct

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