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Everyone laughed when Beijing proposed the Qinghai-Tibet railway too. It would have to be built 1,200 miles over seasonal permafrost and the workers would have
by mjklin 12y ago
Everyone laughed when Beijing proposed the Qinghai-Tibet railway too. It would have to be built 1,200 miles over seasonal permafrost and the workers would have to wear special suits and breathing apparatus.
It has been running since 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai–Tibet_Railway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai–Tibet_Railway
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoI don't remember laughing about this. Building a train route overland isn't really that amazing, especially considering that we know how to deal with the permafrost these days. It would be totally possible to build a line from Beijing to Seattle, or even just Fairbanks to Seattle, it just wouldn't be economically interesting.
- tokenadult 12y agoI wasn't laughing about that project, and I don't remember anyone else who was. A lot of people were surprised it hadn't been done sooner, as an assertion of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. The desire to reinforce the territorial claim to Tibet was why all the considerable engineering difficulties were overcome with sufficient resources to push through the project.
- tsotha 12y agoNot really, no. For one thing, building a rail line to Tibet makes a lot of sense, both because it helps China maintain control over Tibet and for logistics in border problems with India. The rail line in the article makes no sense. It would be incredibly expensive (particularly the tunnel), there's no strategic reason for it, people would rather fly at that distance, and freight is cheaper to ship by sea.