China's Picturesque Tibet Autonomous Region: News & Images

[TaiShang]

Xinjiang-Tibet Highway: One of the World's Highest Motorable Roads



Photo taken on April 30, 2016 shows the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway passing through mountains in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. As one of the world's highest motorable roads, Xinjiang-Tibet Highway, or China National Highway 219, connects Xinjiang and southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region with an average altitude of over 4,500 meters. Originally made of graval in 1950s, the 2,340-kilometer highway was fully paved with asphalt in 2013. [Photo: Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao]



Photo taken on April 30, 2016 shows the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway passing through mountains in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. As one of the world's highest motorable roads, Xinjiang-Tibet Highway, or China National Highway 219, connects Xinjiang and southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region with an average altitude of over 4,500 meters. Originally made of graval in 1950s, the 2,340-kilometer highway was fully paved with asphalt in 2013. [Photo: Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao]



Photo taken on April 30, 2016 shows the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway passing through mountains in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. As one of the world's highest motorable roads, Xinjiang-Tibet Highway, or China National Highway 219, connects Xinjiang and southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region with an average altitude of over 4,500 meters. Originally made of graval in 1950s, the 2,340-kilometer highway was fully paved with asphalt in 2013. [Photo: Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao]



Photo taken on April 30, 2016 shows the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway passing through mountains in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. As one of the world's highest motorable roads, Xinjiang-Tibet Highway, or China National Highway 219, connects Xinjiang and southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region with an average altitude of over 4,500 meters. Originally made of graval in 1950s, the 2,340-kilometer highway was fully paved with asphalt in 2013. [Photo: Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao]



Photo taken on April 30, 2016 shows the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway passing through mountains in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. As one of the world's highest motorable roads, Xinjiang-Tibet Highway, or China National Highway 219, connects Xinjiang and southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region with an average altitude of over 4,500 meters. Originally made of graval in 1950s, the 2,340-kilometer highway was fully paved with asphalt in 2013. [Photo: Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao]

 

[AndrewJin]

Panda's inclusive growth!
Photos I took in 2011, Tibet-Xinjiang or Tibet-Nepal highway, very excited to know the whole route has been finally paved!

Tibetan prefectures in Sichuan Province

 

[AndrewJin]

Don't steal photos above unless given consent from Andrew

 

[TaiShang]

Majestic pictures, @AndrewJin

You may think of embedding a watermark into the pictures, so, the copyright owner would be recognized.

 

[AndrewJin]

Majestic pictures, @AndrewJin

You may think of embedding a watermark into the pictures, so, the copyright owner would be recognized.

Now I get over it, just some smart phone photos，taken on the moving and shaking vehicles.

 

[TaiShang]

PLA is building those roads ?

I think Army Construction Corps. Similar to US Engineering Corps, I believe.

 

[AndrewJin]

I think Army Construction Corps. Similar to US Engineering Corps, I believe.

Lest we forget those sacrificed their young life when they were building the first highway half a century ago.

 

[JSCh]

Heavenly road lifts Tibetan life into new height
Source: Xinhua | 2016-05-06 18:09:34 | Editor: huaxia

URUMQI, May 6 (Xinhua) -- National Highway 219, also known as the heavenly road, connects Xinjiang and Tibet in west China at an average altitude of over 4,500 meters and is the world's highest road suitable for ordinary vehicles.

HARDSHIP OVERCOME

The old and deserted road could still be seen along with the new modern highway winding through the mountains. According to local people, the old road was so narrow that it is impossible for two vehicles to travel from opposite directions. So one vehicle had to give another the right of way. In the past, experienced drivers had to blow the horn from the distance.

Since the highway was built along with the mountains, sometimes the falling stones would disrupt the traffic so transport police officers have to closely watch the road condition and move quickly to solve all the problems. Usually, they would open a makeshift road for passing vehicles. Then two operators would use the loader and grab excavator to clean the road. More importantly, two officers have to stand by any time and monitor the situation very carefully to protect the operators.

Not far away from the barracks of transport police officers, a martyrs' cemetery lies in the Gobi Desert where hundreds of people had sacrificed their lives in protecting the borders and building national defense facilities on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Wine, fruits and cigarettes were served by passing officers for their condolence.

TRAVEL TIME CUT

Originally covered by gravel in 1950s, the 2,340-kilometer highway was almost fully paved by 2013, slashing the travel time between Yecheng County in southern Xinjiang and Ngari Prefecture in Tibet from 15 days to just one day, with another day to reach Lhasa. Numbers of accidents and fatalities also fell dramatically.

Transport police officer Luo Bing has been working on the highway for over 15 years. There were hardly any asphalted roads at all when he first came to Ritu and now the town has two wide streets filled with restaurants and shops.

PEOPLE'S LIFESTYLE CHANGED

About 700 kilometers down the highway from Ritu, dramatic changes in life has come to local people after the completion of the new road. Back in 2003 when Song Shibing, chief of a transport police troop, tried to buy an axe from a herdsman for 100 yuan, the herdsman turned down the banknote though Song's offer was several times higher than the price of an axe in an ordinary shop. Instead, the herdsman brandished an empty 5-liter bottle instead. He wanted to barter the axe for diesel.

"Money meant almost nothing on the plateau as there were few things for sale," Song said. "Local people usually kept their money in a wooden box under the bed and sometimes dried their moldy old notes in the sun."

SAFER MODERN HIGHWAY

As the capacity of the road increased and it became much safer to drive, vegetables, fruit and necessities have arrive on the plateau almost every day. As a result, many herders have taken their money from under their beds and deposited it in a bank.

Tuo Jide, a retired armed transport police driver, has run a restaurant at Xihexiu village next to the highway for 17 years. Business has blossomed since the road was improved.

"Decades ago, the potholes in the road were deep enough for a yak to hide in," Tuo said. "Drivers did not dare to hit the road without plenty of food and gas in their cars. Vehicles crashed and broke down all the time along the way."

With a safer and much more modern highway, transportation costs from Yecheng to Ngari have fallen by 55 percent, leading to cuts of about 40 percent in the price of commodities sold in the Tibetan town. Better yet, the number of tourists in Ngari has surged five fold.

"The highway today looks to me like an airport runway -- wide, flat and smooth," Tuo said.

"A heavenly road, indeed," he added.

NATURAL SCENES

As the highway was built at an average altitude of over 4,500 meters, a lot of rare animals can be seen when travelling.

A tibetan antelope.

A yak.

A flock of sheep along the Bangong Lake.​

 

[TaiShang]

Liuwu Bridge, China Tibet’s very first modern overpass (Photo Taken on Aug 25, 2014)

2015 marked China Tibet’s 50th anniversary of peaceful liberation.

Located on the world’s highest plateau, China's Tibet used to be known for its underdeveloped transportation system.

Over the last half century, the Chinese government has been dedicated to modernizing the connections on the roads, on the rails, and in the air.

Here are eight public transportation icons in Tibet.


The first Xigazê-bound train enters the final station on the Lhasa–Xigazê Railway (Photo Taken on Aug 16, 2014)


The Lhasa-Nyingchi Highway is under construction (Photo Taken on Aug 8, 2015)



Scene of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway in Chamdo (Photo Taken on Aug 4, 2015)


The 72 Curves of Nujiang River on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway (Photo Taken on Aug 4, 2015)


A Train runs on Qinghai-Tibet Railway (Photo Taken on March 18, 2013)


Tangmai Bridge is under construction (Photo Taken on Aug 5, 2015)

A Merged photo comparing the new Tangmai Bridge and the two small bridges before (Photo Taken on Aug 5, 2015)

 

[beijingwalker]

Modern day Lhasa is not a patch on what you thought Tibet looks like!

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Wow I'm impress with such nice and clean city, we have make our giant neighbor so envy, good work our civil engineer and government.

 

[beijingwalker]

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Not only Tibetan cities is modernized but the people too, clean and well dress, let celebrate

 

[beijingwalker]

Wow I'm impress with such nice and clean city, we have make our giant neighbor so envy, good work our civil engineer and government.

But the introduction section says that's the way China killed Tibetan culture. They just wish that Tibet remains backward and underdeveloped, being stuck in poverty forever, cause they believe that's the authentic Tibetan culture that no one should try to change.

Driving in Tibet

we committed cultural genocide by building beautiful roads, bridges, railways on the roof of the world.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

But the introduction section says that's the way China killed Tibetan culture. They just wish that Tibet remains backward and underdeveloped, being stuck in poverty forever, cause they believe that's the authentic Tibetan culture that no one should try to change.

Just ignore these sour grape Indians, if they are happy to live in slum, it's their business , of course India would like to see backward Tibet or Tibet will put India into shame when people compare Tibet cities to India slum and Indians will look bad in South Asia, India always hate when we're doing something against their expectation