What makes the train trip from Beijing to Lhasa Tibet unique?
First of all, a little geography lesson: the first half of the trip (Beijing-Lanzhou) crosses highly-populated agricultural land and barren desert, on busy tracks that have been used for decades. The next portion of the trip (Lanzhou – Xining – Golmud) is through much less populated high plateau, including crossing the grasslands and lakes of Qinghai Province, on tracks completed in 1984. The new track (opened in July 2006) runs from Golmud (Gormo) to Lhasa, and although it often parallels a long-standing gravel road over the mountains, very few people live near the route.
