The Highest Railroad in the World
It is sometime in the middle of the night. I’m not exactly sure when. The train’s clock has been flashing 20:35 since I boarded on Sunday, and I only know today is Tuesday. I can’t seem to stay asleep for very long, and have awoken several times only to find the rest of the cabin in a deep slumber. Maybe it’s the increasingly high altitude and thin air or maybe it’s the high pitched whizzing of the oxygen being artificially pumped into the train. Maybe it’s just anticipation for the unique culture and breathtaking (literally) scenery I have yet to experience in Tibet.
Whatever it was that caused me to stir, I am deeply grateful. The stunning landscape passing by out the window was enough to keep my jaw wide open. A thick blanket of brilliant stars helped the enormous, near-full moon illuminate the high-altitude desert plateau. Glowing bluish-white frost stretched off into the horizon and up the distant mountains. It was almost as bright as if the sun was shining over the land, but the blue color portrayed a scene more similar to a serene alien planet.
With the exception of a short period of time when the plains completely disappeared into infinity, the intoxicating scenery changed little. Yet the awe would not subside as I sat glued to the window. Over the next couple hours, a faint glow in the eastern horizon began to push all but the brightest stars back into slumber. The blanket of frost began to dissolve and gave way to a barren land of brown and yellow, occasionally patched with frozen rivers and lakes. An ethereal blue filled the sky. For the first time during the last three months of my visit to China I wasn’t able to spot haze and pollution in the distance. The huge piles of trash that commonly accompany train tracks were non-existent.
see all of my photos from the Highest Railroad in the World
I’m sure that more impressive sights await me as I approach the Himalayas, but this stark contrast to the typical mainland Chinese landscape was quite a change. Enough to inspire its fair share of awe and lead me to believe I’ve stepped into another country… or at least what used to be one fifty years prior.
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Tags: - Photography, - Transport & Travel, - Transport: Train, Asia, China, China: Tibet, Tibet, Train
Adam Shane
wow. i skipped ahead and looked at all of your tibet pictures. they rock. you rock. no really, you’re a friggin rockstar, adam. keep it comin…
everything amanda said X 100 dude.
i have never seen anything like those photos. some look like paintings. its incredible. i will see that first hand some day, im sure.
everyone here wishes you well my nomadic friend. talk to you soon!