The 10th anniversary of the opening of the Tibet Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway: The longest road has become closer
2024-08-18
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China News Service, Shigatse, August 16, Title: The 10th Anniversary of the Opening of Tibet Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway: Even the Longest Road Has Become Closer
China News Service reporter Jiang Feibo Gongsang Lamu
"With the advent of trains, especially high-speed trains, even the longest journey seems to have become closer." On the 16th, Danzeng Lunzhu, an 18-year-old boy from Lazi County, Shigatse, said in an interview with China News Service that in recent years, his parents, who are farmers and herdsmen, have often gone to Lhasa to visit relatives and worship Buddha, and trains have facilitated their more frequent travel.
On that day, Tibet's Lhasa-Shigatse Railway was opened to traffic for ten years. As a plateau intercity railway connecting Lhasa and Shigatse, the Lhasa-Shigatse Railway has transported more than 14.29 million passengers in the past ten years.
The picture shows passengers boarding the C885 train at Lhasa Railway Station on the morning of August 16, preparing to go to Shigatse. That day marked the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Lhasa-Shigatse Railway in Tibet. Photo by Jiang Feibo, a reporter from China News Service
Danzeng Lunzhu said that he attended Jiangsu Experimental Middle School in Lhasa for high school. "The study and living conditions in Lhasa are better, and many of my classmates are from Shigatse." He said that he was able to study in Lhasa thanks to the opening of the high-speed train on the Lhasa-Shigatse Railway in 2021, making it very convenient to travel between the two places.
“My older cousins also wanted to go to Lhasa to study, but the transportation conditions were not so convenient at that time.” Danzeng Lunzhu said that when he was in high school, he went home about once a month. After the train arrived in Shigatse, he could take the connecting bus at the exit and return to his home in Lhasa in more than two hours.
Danzeng Lhunzhu was admitted to Jilin University of Finance and Economics in the college entrance examination this year. He said that because he had accumulated life experience in Lhasa, his parents were relieved to let him go to Northeast China to study. He and his family have agreed that he will fly to Beijing first and then take a train to Jilin when school starts.
The picture shows Mi Ma, a farmer and herdsman from Zhaguo Township, Dingri County, Shigatse, Tibet, riding on the Plateau Fuxing Express, with the Lhasa-Ribeiro Expressway outside the window on August 16. Photo by Jiang Feibo, a reporter from China News Service
Mi Ma and Awang Bamu, who were also passengers on the C885 train, are a married couple, farmers and herdsmen from Zhaguo Township, Dingri County, Shigatse. Mi Ma said that last year he and his wife took the Fuxing train from Shigatse to Lhasa for the first time to work, and saved 30,000 yuan (RMB, the same below).
Mi Ma said that in the past half month or so, he and his wife have earned more than 5,000 yuan working in Lhasa. Since his family also grows more than ten acres of barley, which is about to ripen in autumn, they took the Fuxing train this time to go home and prepare to harvest the barley.
"The train ticket from Lhasa to Shigatse is only 64 yuan, which is very affordable." He said that there are now railways and highways between the two places, and the road conditions from Shigatse to Zhaguo Township, Dingri County are also very good. If you set out from Lhasa early in the morning, you can get home before dark, which was unimaginable before.
71-year-old Lobtonzhu is from Danada Township, Xietongmen County. He said that he came to Lhasa to visit his daughter and celebrated the Shoton Festival in Lhasa. That morning, his son-in-law took him to Lhasa Railway Station to catch the train.
Looking at the Yarlung Zangbo River and the fields outside the window, the old man sighed that Shigatse in August is the most beautiful. Regarding the Lhasa-Shigatse Railway, Lobdondup said frankly, "Ya Gudu" (which means good in Tibetan), "I thought it was very good and convenient when I took the train for the first time, and now this train is even better."
On August 16, 71-year-old Luobudongzhu boarded the C885 train on the Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway. Photo by Jiang Feibo, a reporter from China News Service
Train C885 was the second EMU train from Lhasa to Shigatse on the day. Dawa, stationmaster of Shigatse Railway Station, said that in the ten years since the opening of the Lhasa-Shigatse Railway, it has developed from two pairs of ordinary speed trains running daily in the early days to five pairs of Fuxing EMU trains running daily.
Dawa is also from Shigatse. He said that when he went abroad to study in the 1990s, there was no railway in Tibet at that time. It was a long and arduous process to go from Shigatse to Lhasa and then take a bus from Lhasa to Golmud, Qinghai.
"I feel very proud to be engaged in railway transportation in my hometown now." Dawa said. He also hopes that the railway in Shigatse can be further extended to Xinjiang and even to Nepal. In this way, the future of Shigatse will be beyond imagination.
(Source: China News Network)
