It was relatively cold here at 09.41 a.m.
I'm sitting here on the corridor as we pass railway station after station, city after city. We're climbing now,
though the serious climb will begin when we reach Xining (pronounced Singing) at 17.28 hrs this evening. There we will change trains for the final run to Lhasa.
We're now 24 hours from Guangzhou and the scenery has changed utterly as we tunnel
our way through the mountains, their crests dipped in cloud.
In the valleys below, the vast 'paddi fields ' abound
This afternoon, the agriicultural use of the land changed as paddi field was exchanged for triangular fields of various crops, some emerging from plastic covering.
The symmetry of the planting was amazing. The cities of yesterday and this morning were replaced by smaller villages constructed from mud.
The roads and railway tracks are frequently built above the road to avoid interference with animal migration.
One of many new high speed railways
under construction.
Our train going through a tunnel
We had no rain in Guangzhou but later last night as we travelled towards the mountains, it commenced raining and the ground was wet when we arrived in Xian. Now in the late afternoon it has cleared again but one notices a remarkable drop in temperature as we ascend.
At 16.45 hrs and 29 hrs out of Guandzhou, we have arrived at Landzou station situated in a huge city. The large cities are becoming more of a rarity as we ascend into mountains. As one approaches the platform at Landzou all the sellers are there doing business as at every station to date.
The city is huge I've never seen any city like it - multi-storey tower blocks abound - below is a tiny percentage of them!!
We arrived in Xinging at 1900 hrs and are due to depart for Lhasa at 1958 hrs. The temperature had taken a noticeable drop. In Guangzhou, it was 28• , here I would wager a guess that it's about 8-10• !!! The skirt has been replaced by the trousers and a jumper has been donned.
The transfer to the Qinghai - Tibet train to Lhasa was as simple as crossing the platform and entering the same number carriage, cabin and bed. The carriages were built by Bombardier with special enriched -oxygen one on each bunk
and U V protection systems.
There was a slight moment of panic as the Tibetan visa was checked. It was all in Mandarin so we were totally reliant on our Chinese agent ethel@chinahighlights.com providing a valid visa. A foreigner cannot board the train to Tibet without a valid visa. After some checking - all was in order and we boarded. Now we commence the 1,956 km to Lhasa.
As we've travelled further north, it is still bright. Night descends in Guangzhou at 1930. At 2100 hrs darkness descended.
The cabin was somewhat similar to the other but privacy is obviously not an issue in China as each ccomparment of 8 cabins had three wash hand basins on the corridor!! That was it ! At least the previous carriage had a door if not a lock on it!!
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