Tanggula Railway Station

Coordinates: 32°53′05″N 91°55′06″E / 32.88472°N 91.91833°E / 32.88472; 91.91833
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Tanggula railway station building
Tanggula railway station platform

Tanggula railway station is a railway station on the Qingzang railway in Tibet. It is in Amdo County. Tibet is currently an Autonomous Region inside China. At an altitude of 5,068 meters above sea level it is said to be the highest train station in the world.[1] The next higher station outside China was Ticlio station in (Peru), at 4,829 m.

In 2009, the station was closed, but there are plans to make special trains for tourists stop there.[2]

32°53′05″N 91°55′06″E / 32.88472°N 91.91833°E / 32.88472; 91.91833

Introduction[change | change source]

Tanggula railway station is less than one kilometre from Tanggula Pass which is the highest point of the Qingzang railway. That point is 5,072 meters above sea level.

There are no staff at the station, which opened for service on July 1, 2006. Some say that the railway was built to help China control the people of Tibet.[3]

There are three railway tracks at the station. Two of them can be accessed by a platform. The platforms are 1.25km long. The place where the station was built was specially selected for the view it offers.

In 2008, Tangula Railtours[4] will launch a tourist train service from Beijing to Lhasa through the pass. Three specially-built luxury trains will be used for the service.[2]

Related pages[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. Tanggula, Mikes Rail History, accessed August 2009
  2. 2.0 2.1 Launching luxury on line to Tibet Archived 2012-06-08 at the Wayback Machine Railway Gazette International. August 30, 2007. Retrieved August 3, 2009.
  3. "Tracking the Steel Dragon: How China's economic policies and the railroad are transforming Tibet". Archived from the original on 2009-10-03. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  4. Tangula.com.cn Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine, (not in English)