Train

No, this is not us boarding the train at Beijing West. That was at 9:30PM and was more like a rush to the lifeboats on the Titanic, even though we had assigned bunks. This is a shot of a train station, we think in Lanzhou, and it is the right train.

There are 4 types of regular Chinese passenger trains: Z,T,K and a 4-digit local train. We didn't sample the Z trains, which are express trains between places like Beijing and Shanghai. The train to Tibet was a T train, a fairly nice variety, which is good because you're stuck on it for over 48 hours. What actually makes or breaks a trip can be one's bunk buddies! We were lucky and had fairly amiable and quiet travelers.

There are two kinds of sleeper accommodations : hard and soft (we guess that designating it as a "class" would offend the Party faithful). We wish we had a picture of the hard sleepers, which looked like rolling barracks. We were going to sneak a shot but it's tough when you're the only gweilo (foreign devil) in the car. Each soft sleeper has four beds and it can be pretty cramped if all four share the cabin during daytime. Most of us either slept, read, dozed in our respective bunks, or ambled about the train. We met some lovely sojourners who were on holiday from either Europe or South America. Unfortunately, we are sorely short of Mandarin and it was equally difficult to speak with the local Tibetans. Most were eager to try to speak what English they did know. Everyone did a lot of smiling!

Still life with bags of fruit. We wish we'd gotten a nice pristine shot of the sleeper, but the Titanic panic scene in Beijing made that difficult. Here we see our two lower bunks, complete with slugabed Hub, the massive lump on the right. The book on the table is Riding the Iron Rooster, by Paul Theroux. It's about riding trains in China. The admiral scolded the poor Capt about reading a book about Chinese trains instead of experiencing being on a Chinese train. He agreed (of course) that she was entirely correct, being a good husband. Then he went back to reading his book, just like a spouse.

The dining car, complete with bored officials.

An exotic traveler, doing what he does best. Note the bottle of Bud and priceless Ming Dynasty styrofoam dinnerware.

OK, I'm sure you're wondering why a shot of the train's toilet - what's so special? Well, therein lies a tale:

Once upon a time an Admiral wanted to use the loo. There are two kinds, the one seen above and what we call a "squatter" (you'll see that later...). This nice one always seemed occupied, so the Admiral went to inquire of a bored staffer as to why. Well, she found it wasn't occupied after all, just locked. Why was it locked? Because it had been cleaned and "STERILIZED" and the staff didn't want any nasty passengers coming along and soiling it. The Admiral ("You don't know who you messing with.") insisted that it be opened and naturally it came to pass. The Capt was quick enough to save this shot of the Toilet Museum on the T27 Express. The Capt was not surprised, having sampled the glories of the Soviet Union and its approach to customer service. China remains Communist, at least on the trains.

OK, you didn't come here to look at Chinese train potties, did you? Let's look outside. Here we see a Highway to Nowhere. Boy, going off this road looks real exciting - no guard rails or shoulders.

We're not trying to show any kind of detrimental or unkind shots of urban housing, but this reminded us of The Projects in the South Bronx. If you ride the New York City "L" the scenery resembles its very far distant neighbor to the east. Urban is Urban. (Actually, the Capt thought it a bit o' Soviet Union, living on). Note the burglar bars. In some apartments the bars went all the way up, a tribute to the ingenuity and great skill of Chinese burglars.

This picture show two items of interest. In the background we see massive air pollution in the form of coal-burning factories. At least they have factories. In the foreground we see typical Chinese agriculture: small plots of vegetables, all the work being done by hand. Back breaking. Ow.

If you look closely, you will see a farmer in his cornfield, complete with coolie hat. We saw just about any spot of ground being industriously cultivated. As we said earlier, food is a Chinese obsession and they do a fabulous job of growing it, mostly by hand.

Look! Mountains! Roof of the World! Actually, this may just be the upper Lop Nor Desert, but we know we're getting closer. Clack clack, clack clack...

And look! Yaks! We know we're not in Kansas anymore.

OK, some of this stuff doesn't appear very interesting. What you see here is a concrete fence designed to stop sand and snow drifts. We assume the stones in the foreground also help keep the track clear. The stones were very carefully laid out, for miles and miles of track. If you look closely, you will see the photographer's hand reflected in the window. This is stuff you don't see in tired old journals like National Geographic.

Here's a bit of officialdom out in the middle of absolute nowhere. Motorcycles are the main form of transportation.

A lot of people live in tents, at least part of the year. This one has solar panels and satellite TV. Note the 3-wheeled truck on the left.

This is a typical Tibetan housing development, complete with stone fences. Note the flags. This does not mean they sell used cars. Those are prayer flags which have Sanskrit prayers and images on them. Every house in this picture has them. You will see many during our sojourn.

This upscale dwelling boasts a solarium.

At this point we are riding on oxygen at about 18,000' (5500m). The peaks are over 20,000' (6100m). Most experts predicted the Chinese could never build a railroad so high. Leave it to the experts, just like the stock market!! Remember, our express train was traveling at least 60 mph (100 kph). The washed out appearance is due to the window; we doubt if the NatGeo flacks have this problem. Losers.

A very high mountain glacier.

For all you extreme skiers out there, this is one baby who won't disappoint . Heli-skiing has not come to Tibet yet, but I bet the near future will bring some young entrepreneur.

The same peak from another angle. There's just something different about these mountains.

If you don't care to ski this time try snowboarding or just a plain old fashioned sled! There is nothing more exciting than a mountain covered with great powder. Unfortunately, this one is probably just full of a good ole avalanche.

Civilization on the Tibetan Plateau. We're not sure it's an improvement.

But, there's still a lot of original Tibet, like this yakherdess.

Here's a scene with prayer flags, maybe a stupa or two. This vast, empty landscape is such a contrast with dense, polluted urban China.

And in the background, mountains. Always. The Admiral has always dreamed of climbing Kilimanjaro and Mt. Everest. Now, happiness is derived from a distance. Maybe we could get to Everest Base Camp. Happy with that!!!! Recently there was an article of 10 seniors dying on Mt. Fuji. Of course, we don't fit that category yet!!

Amidst all this, another outpost, complete with cycles, yaks and guys.

And always the mountains.

Herders, in the middle of nowhere, with just an umbrella.

Yeah you're thinking, Gawd, will we ever get there? Clack clack. Clack clack. Yes, dear reader, we do finally arrive! Join us in Lhasa!