Shangri-La Express: Slow train to Tibet
Have a spare 17 grand that’s been burning a hole in your pocket? Book a berth on the Shangri-La Express, due to roll from Golmud, China to Lhasa, Tibet beginning in 2007. For $16,995 single occupancy, you can take a deluxe International Railway Traveler Society rail tour of China that begins and ends in Beijing and includes a 20-hour ride on the 713 miles of track the Chinese government is currently constructing to link Golmud with the fabled Tibetan capital. (The UK’s Trans-Siberian Express will operate the train, and National Geographic Traveler magazine reported that tours starting at $5,600 are available through the operator’s booking arm, GW Travel. That may be, but in this blog, I link you only to sites that pass the Lori Hein test, and gwtravel.co.uk, didn’t. Once on the site, a look at their price list requires a download, a step I didn’t appreciate. If you’re interested, you’ve got the URL.)
When completed, the tracks between Golmud, in Qinghai Province north of Tibet, and Lhasa, will be the world’s highest railway line. For most of the journey, passengers will roll along at over 13,000 feet, topping out at 17,146, and pressurized cabins will mitigate the effects of the low-oxygen environment. (Effects like brain-piercing altitude sickness headaches. Mine reduced me to a weeping pile of flesh, and I ate painkillers and sucked on the hose of the oxygen bottle in my Lhasa hotel room to no effect. I waited it out, all the while thinking my head would surely explode and I would die on the floor of the Lhasa Holiday Inn.)
The advent of the Shangri-La Express is remarkable not only for the wonder of its engineering, but because it will make more accessible a place that has, for ages, been among the world’s most difficult to reach. And it’s Tibet’s remoteness that has helped protect and nurture its gentle 1400-year-old Buddhist culture and has given the land its powerful aura of mystery.
Read more details of this article at: Blog of Lori Hern
I was on board for a portion of the trip, including from Golmud to Lhasa on the new rail line.
The Shangri-La Express is a private train running in China. While it does take tour passengers all around China in comfort and privacy, it does not actually run on the line from Golmud to Lhasa. As you mentioned, this is the highest railway line in the world–much over permafrost–and thus, it requires very special equipment to run over it. The regular trains on this line are specially made by Bombadier, with reinforced windows and oxygen-enriched carriages. There is also individual oxygen supplies that can be taken at one’s seat.
Our 2007 group had little trouble with the altitude while on board (though some were taking Diamox to combat potential altitude sickness). A few people felt a bit light-headed, and thus took some oxygen, very easily administered at one’s seat via a face mask, and they were fine afterward. It is true that altitude affects some more than others (and some, like myself, not much at all).
Lhasa was an absolutely phenomenal place to visit, and as you mentioned, it is quite difficult to reach, so arriving by train was ideal.
the 18-day trip described above and thus more affordable. For example, we have an 11-day tour from Lhasa to Beijing running in May beginning at $6,995. This includes travel on the regular train from Lhasa to Golmud (which now takes 12 to 14 hours), and travel from Golmud to Beijing aboard the Shangri-La Express train, with touring along the way in Xining, Xian, Luoyang and Beijing. The Shangri-La Express offers private compartments with upper and lower berths, as well as a bar car and restaurant car where on-board meals are served.