Listening to the sounds of a train at 5,000 meters

What does a train sound like as it climbs toward an altitude of 5,000 meters?

It is the laughter of strangers becoming acquainted, songs carrying across the plateau night, and, in the small hours, labored breathing gradually becoming steady again with the help of oxygen.

At 12:50 pm on Aug 10, train Z8981 left Xining in Qinghai province for Lhasa, capital of the Xizang autonomous region. Over the next 22 hours, it crossed the Qaidam Basin, stopped at Golmud, and continued through Hoh Xil and the Tanggula Mountains.

Outside, alpine meadows gave way to desert, salt lakes and snow-covered peaks. Inside, three distinct sounds told a more intimate story about the Qinghai-Xizang Railway, which marked the 20th anniversary of its full operation this year.

Laughter along the way

The carriages grew lively soon after the train left Xining. Passengers raised their phones to photograph the landscape, struck up conversations across the aisle and watched the windows for a chance glimpse of wild animals.

Among them was Chen, a doctoral candidate from Wuhan, Hubei province, who has studied in Northwest China for more than a decade. This was his second rail journey into Xizang.

In 2015, when he was a first-year master's student, Chen traveled alone on the line for the first time. This year, he was accompanied by his wife.

“Flying may be faster, but you miss the way the landscape changes along the journey,” he said.

For Chen, the railway is more than a means of reaching Lhasa. After the train leaves the area around Qinghai Lake, the scenery gradually becomes more austere. Freight trains carrying potash products appear near Qarhan Salt Lake, while Xizang wild donkeys and other animals can sometimes be seen in Hoh Xil.

Chen remembers a stronger sense of “everyday bustle” aboard the train 11 years ago. Passengers chatted for hours, but charging sockets were limited and often located at one end of the carriage. Today, he said, the carriages are cleaner, charging facilities are easier to reach, sanitation equipment has improved and oxygen services are more clearly signposted.

“The journey is certainly more convenient now, and passengers have more choices,” he said.

The changes have also become part of his own life. During his first visit, Chen had little money and could afford only a brief trip. Now, with his doctoral studies nearing completion, he hopes to explore more parts of the country with his wife.

“I want to take her around China,” he said with a smile. “When we have children, I hope we can show them the country too.”

Eleven years ago, a young student set out alone. This time, he and his wife sat side by side at the window. The tracks still stretched toward the plateau, but the passenger and his hopes for the future had changed.

In the same carriage, a family from Qinghai was also traveling to Lhasa. More than 20 years ago, the oldest family member had flown to Xizang, before the railway went into full operation. Now he was returning by train with his children and grandchildren.

Passengers had different reasons for making the journey. Some came for the scenery, while others were visiting relatives, making a pilgrimage or seeing Lhasa for the first time. Conversations began with a greeting before moving to stories of homes, destinations and lives lived far apart.

Songs across the plateau night

At about 10 pm, the dining car became an impromptu stage.

Railway staff invited passengers to gather after a long day on the train. There was no decorated stage and no arranged program. Dozens of people filled the seats and aisle, and the music began almost spontaneously.

The train conductor took the microphone, and the familiar melody of My People, My Country filled the carriage. A group of Tsinghua University students followed with a multilingual rendition of Beijing Welcomes You, before a Xizang passenger sang Heavenly Road.

At first, some travelers simply watched. Soon, more voices joined in and hands began clapping in time. Chinese passengers sat alongside visitors from Japan and Britain, with smiles, rhythm and applause carrying the exchange when words could not.

Outside, the train was moving through a sparsely populated part of the plateau at more than 4,000 meters above sea level. Darkness covered the mountains and grasslands. Inside, songs and laughter rose above the steady sound of the wheels.

Many passengers had chosen the railway for the scenery. That night, however, they became part of the scenery for one another. People of different ages, ethnic groups and nationalities, most of whom had been strangers only hours earlier, created a shared memory in a small dining car.

Breathing steadies near the summit

At about 3 am, as Z8981 crossed the Tanggula mountain section near the railway's highest point, 5,072 meters above sea level, most passengers were asleep.

The Big Dipper hung above mountains that were visible only as faint outlines. Inside the train, some passengers began to breathe more heavily as the altitude rose.

Railway attendants continued along the aisle, carrying transparent oxygen tubes to those who felt unwell. They connected the tubes to individual oxygen outlets beside seats and berths, checked the flow and moved on to the next carriage.

A slender tube linked each passenger to the train's oxygen system. At that hour, it also offered something immediate: reassurance.

Several hours earlier, passengers had stepped onto the platform at Golmud to watch a specially equipped plateau locomotive being coupled to the train. After departure, the carriages began receiving diffused oxygen through the air-conditioning system. Independent outlets provided additional oxygen to passengers when needed.

Along this railway, technology is not experienced simply as a set of technical specifications. It is oxygen circulating quietly through a carriage, an outlet within reach of a berth and the footsteps of an attendant responding in the middle of the night.

The Qinghai-Xizang Railway runs 1,956 kilometers from Xining to Lhasa. More than 960 kilometers of the route lies above 4,000 meters, reaching 5,072 meters near Tanggula Pass. Its builders overcame permafrost, extreme cold, oxygen scarcity and a fragile ecosystem. When the full line began operation on July 1, 2006, Xizang ended its history of having no railway connection.

Over the past 20 years, the railway has recorded 104 million passenger trips and transported 824 million metric tons of freight. The number of scheduled passenger train pairs operating each day has increased from five to 13, and Lhasa now has direct rail links with 14 provincial capitals and municipalities.

Behind those figures are journeys made for study, work, family reunions, pilgrimages and travel.

As sunlight fell across the tracks, the train continued toward Lhasa. Twenty years after the full railway opened, laughter, songs and steady breathing still accompany the “heavenly road” across the roof of the world and into the lives of the people it serves.

文字 | 单天青 魏家朋

排版 | 单天青