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China Travel by First Class Train
Twenty years ago the acclaimed
travel writer Paul Theroux spent a year travelling around China by train.
He wrote a book about his experience and the book became a bestseller.
Titled
Riding the Iron Rooster, the book ends with a chapter named "The Train
to Tibet". Theroux predicted in the book that it would be impossible for
the Chinese to build a railway to Tibet due to insurmountable climatic and
geological challenges including permafrost. Twenty years later the Chinese
achieved what he thought to be impossible. And we happily rode the train
to Tibet! The railway opened on July 1, 2006 and Laurus Travel had its
first group of 20 riding the train to Lhasa in mid-July that year. We
started out in Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, and arrived in Lhasa
25 hours later.
locomotive |
all aboard! |
sleeping car hallway |
dining car |
"hard" sleeper compartment sleeps 6, can be locked from inside |
"soft" sleeper compartment sleeps 6, can be locked from inside |
washroom |
toilet on the train |
"soft" seat class on a Chinese train, perfect for daytime travel |
Seats in a bullet train |
Chinese bullet train |
Bar on a bullet train |
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