Comments on: Tibet by rail

By: Knitting with steel – Frog in a Well China

Knitting with steel – Frog in a Well China — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:10:22 +0000

[...] history of countries in general and China in particular using railways to bind the nation together. Sun Yat-sen had plans for railway expansion that might charitably be called highly ambitious, and were [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:32:34 +0000

The train is, of course, not pressurized. It is sealed and the air is oxygen-enriched, but at ambient atmospheric pressure. Almost all newspaper reporters got this wrong when the first train rolled out, and they’re still getting it wrong three years later.

By: wmd

wmd — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:45:28 +0000

Didn”t Sun Yat Sen propose the Three Gorges Dam project and other far reaching development schemes to modernize what had been until then a backward feudal nation in the grips of the british empire. Having recently endured two opium wars and the enforced opium trading and consequent addiction of twenty millions of its citizens, the bombardment of all its coastal towns and the humiliation of conceding Hong Cong to the british east india company. Far from being an imperial design i see the rail development project as an exercise in opening up the country to the potential of trade links with its neighboring countries, utilizing the potential of the interior of China and enriching the land and people by giving them access to rapid transport and ready markets. During the American civil war people thought Lincoln was Nuts for building the trans continental rail system and the canals linking the US river systems, within twenty years it was the the most prosperous nation on earth. Humanity must set far reaching goals for the betterment of peoples worldwide including Tibetans.

By: Tundrup

Tundrup — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:52:34 +0000

Colonial railways built in 2006…..the final solution…for the tibet problem….will not bring anything but hatred and instability at the Tibetan plateau.

Read this well researched document called “Tracking the steel dragon” for the truth of the railway:

http://www.savetibet.org/documents/pdfs/TrackingTheSteelDragon.pdf

By: Frog in a Well - The China History Group Blog

Frog in a Well - The China History Group Blog — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:10:49 +0000

[...] Some of the methods for fixing problems are old too. Jiang is big on the railway to Tibet as an important strategic link that will make it easier to control the place. (It’s railway imperialism!) [...]

By: sun bin

sun bin — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 15:18:47 +0000

there are a few hundred km away from ‘along the spines of himalaya’ (except the 2 branchs into nepal, which are perpendicular to the spines). but they are still over 4000m in altitude, and almost as tough to build as the new rail

By: Frog in a Well - The Korea History Group Blog

Frog in a Well - The Korea History Group Blog — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:22:46 +0000

[...] Alan Baumler at Frog in a Well: China also wrote a posting about the Tibetan rail line and Sun Yat-sen’s earlier dreams of a similar railway in the aftermath of the 1911 revolution. [...]

By: Qin Fang

Qin Fang — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 20:04:18 +0000

It reminds me of the debate on whether the New Territory deserved to be included at the expense of big cost in mid-Qing. Millward’s books about Qing imperialism mentions of a similar theme. I guess the frontier project like this seems to have something to do with geopolitics and financial burdens. Yet oen question is to what extent did the state tend to pay for such that?

Such concern about geopolitics in frontier also has its resonance in a costly sea wall project at Haining, a county located along China East Sea in Qing Zhejiang province. Silvers were tremendously poured on the project for two reasons. First, to protect local poeple’s property and economy. Second, by providing a solid sea wall and protecting agrarain economy, the Qing monarchies were convinced that local people preferred to stay with land rather than to go after pirates offshore. That is to say, by engaging in local economy, the state could be able to integrate local people into the empire