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71-493: The Qinghai–Tibet railway or Qingzang railway ( Standard Tibetan : མཚོ་བོད་ལྕགས་ལམ། , mtsho bod lcags lam ; simplified Chinese : 青藏铁路 ; traditional Chinese : 青藏鐵路 ; pinyin : Qīngzàng Tiělù ), is a high-elevation railway line in China between Xining , Qinghai Province , and Lhasa , Tibet . With over 960 km (600 mi) of track being more than 4,000 m (13,123 ft) above sea level , it

142-421: A Lhasa Tibetan syllable is relatively simple; no consonant cluster is allowed and codas are only allowed with a single consonant. Vowels can be either short or long, and long vowels may further be nasalized . Vowel harmony is observed in two syllable words as well as verbs with a finite ending. Also, tones are contrastive in this language, where at least two tonemes are distinguished. Although

213-717: A Tibetan grammar in Hindi . Some of his other works on Tibetan were: In much of Tibet, primary education is conducted either primarily or entirely in the Tibetan language, and bilingual education is rarely introduced before students reach middle school . However, Chinese is the language of instruction of most Tibetan secondary schools . In April 2020, classroom instruction was switched from Tibetan to Mandarin Chinese in Ngaba , Sichuan. Students who continue on to tertiary education have

284-588: A collective or integral are often used after the tens, sometimes after a smaller number. In scientific and astrological works, the numerals, as in Vedic Sanskrit , are expressed by symbolical words. The written numerals are a variant of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system , forming a base-10 positional counting system that is attested early on in Classical Tibetan texts. Tibetan makes use of

355-594: A deliberate policy of extinguishing all that is Tibetan, including their own language in their own country" and he asserted a right for Tibetans to express themselves "in their mother tongue". However, Tibetologist Elliot Sperling has noted that "within certain limits the PRC does make efforts to accommodate Tibetan cultural expression" and "the cultural activity taking place all over the Tibetan plateau cannot be ignored." Some scholars also question such claims because most Tibetans continue to reside in rural areas where Chinese

426-572: A doctor. A Passenger Health Registration Card is required to take the train between Golmud and Lhasa. The card can be obtained when purchasing the ticket. Passengers must read the health notice for high-elevation travel and sign the agreement on the card to take the train. On 28 August 2006, a 75-year-old Hong Kong man was reported to be the first passenger to die on the train, after he had suffered heart problems in Lhasa but insisted on travelling to Xining. There are many technical difficulties for such

497-415: A flat or rising-falling contour, the latter being a tone that rises to a medium level before falling again. It is normally safe to distinguish only between the two tones because there are very few minimal pairs that differ only because of contour. The difference occurs only in certain words ending in the sounds [m] or [ŋ]; for instance, the word kham ( Tibetan : ཁམ་ , "piece") is pronounced [kʰám] with

568-419: A form of umlaut in the Ü/Dbus branch of Central Tibetan . In some unusual cases, the vowels /a/ , /u/ , and /o/ may also be nasalised. The Lhasa dialect is usually described as having two tones: high and low. However, in monosyllabic words, each tone can occur with two distinct contours. The high tone can be pronounced with either a flat or a falling contour, and the low tone can be pronounced with either

639-470: A high flat tone, whereas the word Khams ( Tibetan : ཁམས་ , "the Kham region") is pronounced [kʰâm] with a high falling tone. In polysyllabic words, tone is not important except in the first syllable. This means that from the point of view of phonological typology , Tibetan could more accurately be described as a pitch-accent language than a true tone language , in the latter of which all syllables in

710-516: A lengthening of the vowel is also frequently substituted for the sounds [r] and [l] when they occur at the end of a syllable. The vowels /i/ , /y/ , /e/ , /ø/ , and /ɛ/ each have nasalized forms: /ĩ/ , /ỹ/ , /ẽ/ , /ø̃/ , and /ɛ̃/ , respectively. These historically result from /in/ , /un/ , /en/ , /on/ , /an/ , and are reflected in the written language. The vowel quality of /un/ , /on/ and /an/ has shifted, since historical /n/ , along with all other coronal final consonants, caused

781-776: A plural marker ཚོ <tsho> . Tibetan has been described as having six cases: absolutive , agentive , genitive , ablative , associative and oblique . These are generally marked by particles, which are attached to entire noun phrases, rather than individual nouns. These suffixes may vary in form based on the final sound of the root. Personal pronouns are inflected for number , showing singular, dual and plural forms. They can have between one and three registers . The Standard Tibetan language distinguishes three levels of demonstrative : proximal འདི <'di> "this", medial དེ <de> "that", and distal ཕ་གི <pha-gi> "that over there (yonder)". These can also take case suffixes. Verbs in Tibetan always come at

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852-446: A railway. About half of the second section was built on barely permanent permafrost . In the summer, the uppermost layer thaws, and the ground becomes muddy. The heat from the trains passing above is able to melt the permafrost even with a small change in temperature. The main engineering challenge, aside from oxygen shortages, is the weakness of the permafrost. For areas of permafrost that are not very fragile, an embankment of large rocks

923-908: A result, is often mentioned on regular TV programs. Chinese-Tibetan folk singer Han Hong has a song called Tianlu (Road to Heaven; 天路) praising the Qingzang Railway. On 17 August 2008, a railway spokesman confirmed plans to add six more rail lines connecting to the Qinghai–Tibet railway, including from Lhasa to Nyingchi and from Lhasa to Shigatse , both in the Tibet Autonomous Region . Three lines will originate from Golmud in Qinghai province and run to Chengdu in Sichuan province, Dunhuang in Gansu province, and Korla of

994-555: A special connector particle for the units above each multiple of ten. Between 100 and 199, the connective དང dang , literally "and", is used after the hundred portion. Above ས་ཡ saya million, the numbers are treated as nouns and thus have their multiples following the word. The numbers 1, 2, 3 and 10 change spelling when combined with other numerals, reflecting a change in pronunciation in combination. Tibetan numerals Tibetan numerals Tibetan numerals (1 Million) (1 Billion) Ordinal numbers are formed by adding

1065-488: A suffix to the cardinal number, པ ( -pa ), with the exception of the ordinal number "first", which has its own lexeme, དང་པོ ( dang po ). Tibetan is written with an Indic script , with a historically conservative orthography that reflects Old Tibetan phonology and helps unify the Tibetan-language area. It is also helpful in reconstructing Proto Sino-Tibetan and Old Chinese . Wylie transliteration

1136-497: A word can carry their own tone. The Lhasa Tibetan verbal system distinguishes four tenses and three evidential moods. The three moods may all occur with all three grammatical persons, though early descriptions associated the personal modal category with European first-person agreement. In the 18th and 19th centuries several Western linguists arrived in Tibet: Indian indologist and linguist Rahul Sankrityayan wrote

1207-642: Is 120 km/h (75 mph) and 100 km/h (62 mph) over sections laid on permafrost . The railway from Golmud to Lhasa was completed on 12 October 2005, and it opened to regular trial service on 1 July 2006. The locomotives are turbocharged to combat the power-reducing effect of having to run on about half an atmosphere of air due to extreme altitude. At the beginning, only three trains ran: Beijing–Lhasa (every day), Chengdu/Chongqing–Lhasa (every other day), and Lanzhou/Xining–Lhasa. Shanghai/Guangzhou–Lhasa services were added in October 2006. In July 2010,

1278-677: Is around 60 km from the Rasuwa border crossing. Construction of the railway from Shigatse to Gyirong is expected to start in 2025. The final part of the whole infrastructure will be the Gyirong-Katmandu railway. Within the Golmud to Lhasa section of the line there are 45 stations, 38 of which are unstaffed and monitored by the control center in Xining . Thirteen more stations are planned. The 4,010 m (13,160 ft) New Guanjiao Tunnel

1349-487: Is one of China's major accomplishments of the 21st century. Bombardier Transportation built 361 high-altitude passenger carriages with special enriched-oxygen and UV-protection systems, delivered between December 2005 and May 2006. Fifty-three are luxury sleeper carriages for tourist services. The construction of the railway was part of the China Western Development strategy, an attempt to develop

1420-590: Is rarely spoken, as opposed to Lhasa and other Tibetan cities where Chinese can often be heard. In the Texas Journal of International Law , Barry Sautman stated that "none of the many recent studies of endangered languages deems Tibetan to be imperiled, and language maintenance among Tibetans contrasts with language loss even in the remote areas of Western states renowned for liberal policies... claims that primary schools in Tibet teach Mandarin are in error. Tibetan

1491-514: Is sufficient. Meanwhile, in the most fragile areas, the rail bed must be elevated like a bridge. The engineers dealt with this problem in the areas of weakest permafrost by building elevated tracks with pile-driven foundations sunk deep into the ground. Similar to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System , portions of the track are also passively cooled with ammonia -based heat exchangers . Due to climate change , temperatures in

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1562-527: Is the highest railway line in the world. Construction began on the 815 km (506 mi) section between Xining and Golmud in 1958 and was completed in 1984; the remaining 1,142 km (710 mi) from Golmud to Lhasa started construction in 2001 and opened in 2006, making it the first railway line in Tibet. Passenger trains run from Beijing , Chengdu , Chongqing , Guangzhou , Shanghai , Xining , and Lanzhou , and can carry between 800 and 1,000 passengers during peak season. In addition to it being

1633-429: Is the highest railway station in the world as of October 2024. The second through fifth and tenth highest stations (Tanggula North, Tangguala South, Tuoju, Zhajiazangbu and Jiangkedong respectively) are also on this line. The trains are specially built for high-elevation environments. The diesel locomotives for cargo were built by CSR Qishuyan ( DF8B-9000 Series ) and by CNR Erqi Locomotive ( DF7G-8000 Series ), and

1704-553: Is the longest tunnel between Xining and Golmud, and the 3,345 m (10,974 ft) Yangbajing tunnel is the longest tunnel between Golmud and Lhasa . More than 960 km (600 mi), over 80% of the Golmud–Lhasa section, is at an elevation of more than 4,000 m (13,123 ft). There are 675 bridges, totalling 160 km (99 mi); about 550 km (340 mi) of track is laid on permafrost . At 5,068 metres (16,627 ft) above sea level Tanggula railway station

1775-565: Is the most common system of romanization used by Western scholars in rendering written Tibetan using the Latin alphabet (such as employed on much of this page), while linguists tend to use other special transliteration systems of their own. As for transcriptions meant to approximate the pronunciation, Tibetan pinyin is the official romanization system employed by the government of the People's Republic of China , while English language materials use

1846-528: The China Meteorological Administration that melting, due to global warming , of the permafrost in Tibet on which part of the railway is placed may threaten the railway within the 21st century. The effects of this railway on wild animals such as Tibetan antelope and plants are currently unknown. 33 wildlife crossing railway bridges were constructed specifically to allow continued animal migration. Commentators have noted

1917-666: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Tibetan, written in the Tibetan script : Shigatse Shigatse , officially known as Xigazê , or Rikaze ( Tibetan : གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་ , Wylie : gzhis ka rtse , ZYPY : xigazê ; Chinese : 日喀则 ; pinyin : Rìkāzé ), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of 182,000 km (70,271 sq mi), corresponds to

1988-670: The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region . The sixth will link Xining , the capital of Qinghai, with Zhangye in Gansu . The six lines are expected to be in operation before 2020. Construction work of the Lhasa–Shigatse extension began on 26 September 2010; it was opened in August 2014. The construction of Dunhuang–Golmud railway began in December 2012 and finished on 18 December 2019. This new railway extends

2059-539: The [ɛ̈] phone (resulting from /e/ in a closed syllable) and the [ɛ] phone (resulting from /a/ through the i-mutation ) are distinct or basically identical. Phonemic vowel length exists in Lhasa Tibetan but in a restricted set of circumstances. Assimilation of Classical Tibetan's suffixes, normally ' i (འི་), at the end of a word produces a long vowel in Lhasa Tibetan; the feature is sometimes omitted in phonetic transcriptions. In normal spoken pronunciation,

2130-440: The absolutive , remaining unmarked. Nonetheless, distinction in transitivity is orthogonal to volition; both the volitional and non-volitional classes contain transitive as well as intransitive verbs. The aspect of the verb affects which verbal suffixes and which final auxiliary copulae are attached. Morphologically, verbs in the unaccomplished aspect are marked by the suffix གི <gi> or its other forms, identical to

2201-421: The genitive case for nouns, whereas accomplished aspect verbs do not use this suffix. Each can be broken down into two subcategories: under the unaccomplished aspect, future and progressive /general; under the accomplished aspect, perfect and aorist or simple perfective . Evidentiality is a well-known feature of Tibetan verb morphology, gaining much scholarly attention, and contributing substantially to

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2272-460: The Han population increased by 16,691, or 64.67%, and accounted for 1.66 percentage points of the total population; the populations of various ethnic minorities increased by 78,170, or 11.54%, and accounted for 1.66 percentage points of the total population. Among them, the Tibetan population increased by 76,779, an increase of 11.43%, accounting for a decrease of 1.73 percentage points in the proportion of

2343-475: The Nepalese border. Nepal had requested that the railway be extended to enable trade and tourism between the two nations. The section Lhasa-Shigatse opened in August 2014. In June 2018, China and Nepal signed a series of agreements including the construction of Shigatse- Kathmandu railway during Nepali prime minister Oli 's visit to China. China plans to extend this railway up to Lake Paiku / Gyirong , which

2414-490: The People's Republic of China agreed, the original Rikaze area abolished, the establishment of prefecture-level Shigatse city, the original county-level Shigatse city merged into the Sangzhuzi District . This was the second prefecture-level city established in the Tibet Autonomous Region . On 18 December 2014, prefecture-level Shigatse City was officially established. According to the 2020 Chinese census ,

2485-519: The Qinghai–Tibet railway have received extensions of sidings or passing loops, or these were built from scratch. This will allow the daily train received from Lhasa Railway station to expand from 6 to 12–14. An electrification feasibility study is also in progress. In a meeting between Chinese and Nepalese officials on 25 April 2008, the Chinese delegation announced the intention to extend the Qingzang railway originally to Zhangmu ( Nepali : Khasa) on

2556-542: The Shanghai–Lhasa service became daily, and a daily service between Xining and Lhasa was added, but the service was then suspended for the winter season. Since October 2006, five pairs of passenger trains run between Golmud and Lhasa , and one more pair between Xining and Golmud. The line has a capacity of eight pairs of passenger trains. The passenger carriages used on Lhasa trains are specially built and have an oxygen supply for each passenger. Every passenger train has

2627-512: The THL transcription system. Certain names may also retain irregular transcriptions, such as Chomolungma for Mount Everest . Tibetan orthographic syllable structure is (C 1 C 2 )C 3 (C 4 )V(C 5 C 6 ) Not all combinations are licit. The following summarizes the sound system of the dialect of Tibetan spoken in Lhasa , the most influential variety of the spoken language. The structure of

2698-556: The Tibet Autonomous Region People's Government , has appreciated the railway for introducing more tourism industries to the region with jobs for the local people. The environmental impact of the new railway is an ongoing concern. The increase in passenger traffic will result in greater tourism and economic activity on the Tibetan Plateau, and the construction of the railway may also negatively impact

2769-458: The Tibetan Plateau may be considered to increase by an estimated two to three degrees Celsius. This change is sufficient to melt the permafrost and thereby affect the integrity of the entire system. The effects of climate change on the railway have yet to be seen. The air in Tibet is much thinner, with oxygen partial pressure being 35% to 40% below that at sea level. Special passenger carriages are used, and several oxygen factories were built along

2840-412: The construction of the Qingzang railway, the cost of transportation of both passengers and goods should be greatly reduced, allowing for an increase in volume—the cost per tonne-kilometer will be reduced from 0.38 RMB to 0.12 RMB. It is projected that by 2010, 2.8 million tons will be carried to and from Tibet, with over 75% carried by the railway. Before the railway, the purchasing power of 100 RMB in Lhasa

2911-525: The de-nationalization of Tibetans and the depletion of the region's natural resources. According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua News , the Qingzang railway has promoted the inheritance of Tibetan culture and religion , as the opening of the railway has increased the number of worshippers from all over the country coming to Lhasa. It also advantages Tibetans with accessibility to the rest part of China for tertiary education , employment, and market for local industries. Qiangba Puncog , former Chairman of

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2982-503: The end of the clause . Verbs do not show agreement in person , number or gender in Tibetan. There is also no voice distinction between active and passive ; Tibetan verbs are neutral with regard to voice. Tibetan verbs can be divided into classes based on volition and valency . The volition of the verb has a major effect on its morphology and syntax . Volitional verbs have imperative forms, whilst non-volitional verbs do not: compare ལྟོས་ཤིག <ltos shig> "Look!" with

3053-532: The existed Yinmaxia station on the Qinghai–Tibet Railway 506 km (314 mi) to Dunhuang , Gansu , establishing a direct connection between Xinjiang and Tibet. Given that the Sichuan-Tibet railway is expected to be completed relatively later with less capacity, the Qinghai–Tibet railway is expected to add cargo capacity to fulfill the demand of material transportation. 13 stations along

3124-483: The four tone analysis is favored by linguists in China, DeLancey (2003) suggests that the falling tone and the final [k] or [ʔ] are in contrastive distribution , describing Lhasa Tibetan syllables as either high or low. The vowels of Lhasa Tibetan have been characterized and described in several different ways, and it continues to be a topic of ongoing research. Tournadre and Sangda Dorje describe eight vowels in

3195-601: The historical Ü-Tsang region of Tibet . The administrative center of the prefecture-level city is the Samzhubzê District . It is roughly equivalent to the historical Shigatse urban center, the second-largest city in Tibet, located about 280 km (170 mi) southwest of Lhasa and home to the Tashilhunpo Monastery , traditionally the seat of the Panchen Lama . Some of the towns in

3266-409: The local environment. For example, interference on earth, vegetation, and surface water heat exchange, which may cause freeze-thaw erosion and melting of ice if not handled properly. To reduce the interference, trash and excrement on the trains are collected into two sealed containers in each car, instead of disposing them on the tracks, and are taken out at large stations. There are also concerns from

3337-588: The locomotives for passenger transportation were built by GE in Pennsylvania ( NJ2 ), and the passenger carriages are Chinese-made 25T carriages: on train Z21/Z22, between Beijing West and Lhasa, Bombardier Sifang Transportation (BSP) made carriages on the Golmud-Lhasa section in deep green/yellow or deep red/yellow. Signs in the carriages are in Tibetan , Chinese , and English. The operational speed

3408-400: The non-existent * མཐོང་ཤིག <mthong shig> "*See!". Additionally, only volitional verbs can take the egophoric copula ཡིན <yin> . Verbs in Tibetan can be split into monovalent and divalent verbs; some may also act as both, such as ཆག <chag> "break". This interacts with the volition of the verb to condition which nouns take the ergative case and which must take

3479-621: The option of studying humanistic disciplines in Tibetan at a number of minority colleges in China. This contrasts with Tibetan schools in Dharamsala , India, where the Ministry of Human Resource Development curriculum requires academic subjects to be taught in English from middle school. In February 2008, Norman Baker , a UK MP, released a statement to mark International Mother Language Day claiming, "The Chinese government are following

3550-513: The place of Rikaze where the practice of preaching, and predicated Lhasa as the center of snowy plateau followed by Nianmai (Shigatse). In the eleventh century the Sakya dynasty , Nianmai has initially begun urbanization. In October 1959, Rikaze prefecture was established. In 1970, Rikaze Prefecture was abolished and Rikaze District was established. On 26 June 2014, by the State Council of

3621-618: The potential military impact of this railway as permitting the People's Liberation Army more rapid troop mobilization to certain border areas in dispute with India. Since the opening of Qingzang Railway, scenery as viewed from the railway has become internationally famous: Xining to Golmud : Golmud to Lhasa : 36. Xining to Lhasa Train schedule & price - Travel Tibet China [REDACTED] World's highest railway links Tibet to rest of China at Wikinews [REDACTED] Media related to Qinghai-Tibet Railway at Wikimedia Commons Standard Tibetan language In

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3692-564: The prefecture are: Gyantse ( Gyantse County ), Tingri ( Tingri County ), and Nyalam ( Nyalam County ). On 11 July 2014 Shigatse Prefecture was upgraded into a prefecture-level city (the same status as Lhasa ). In the eighth century, the Tibetan Empire of Tibetan King Chisong Dezan invited Indian monk Padmasambhava into Tibet to build the Samye Mighur Lhundrub Tsula Khang , passing through

3763-517: The railway. With limited industrial capacity in Tibet, the Tibetan economy heavily relies on industrial products from more developed parts of China. Transport of goods in and out of Tibet was mostly through the Qingzang Highway connecting Tibet to the adjacent Qinghai province, which was built in the early 1950s. The length and terrain have limited the capacity of the highway, with less than 1 million tons of goods transported each year. With

3834-508: The railway. Each seat in the train is equipped with an oxygen supply outlet for any possible emergency. The Chinese government claimed that no construction workers died during the construction due to altitude sickness related diseases. The railway passes the Kunlun Mountains , an earthquake zone. The 7.8 M w Kunlun earthquake struck in 2001 (but caused no fatalities). Dozens of earthquake monitors have been installed along

3905-401: The resident population of the city was 798,153. Compared to 703,292 in the 6th Chinese Census , there was a total increase of 94,861 or 13.49% in ten years, with an average annual growth rate of 1.27%. Among them, the male population was 416,384, accounting for 52.17% of the total population, while the female population was 381,769, accounting for 47.83% of the total population. The sex ratio of

3976-518: The same sound as the one following it. The result is that the first is pronounced as an open syllable but retains the vowel typical of a closed syllable. For instance, ཞབས zhabs (foot) is pronounced [ɕʌp] and པད pad (borrowing from Sanskrit padma , lotus ) is pronounced [pɛʔ] , but the compound word, ཞབས་པད zhabs pad (lotus-foot, government minister) is pronounced [ɕʌpɛʔ] . This process can result in minimal pairs involving sounds that are otherwise allophones. Sources vary on whether

4047-455: The standard language: Three additional vowels are sometimes described as significantly distinct: [ʌ] or [ə] , which is normally an allophone of /a/ ; [ɔ] , which is normally an allophone of /o/ ; and [ɛ̈] (an unrounded, centralised, mid front vowel), which is normally an allophone of /e/ . These sounds normally occur in closed syllables; because Tibetan does not allow geminated consonants , there are cases in which one syllable ends with

4118-483: The total population (100 females) was 109.07. The population aged 0-14 years was 209,900, accounting for 26.3% of the total population; the population aged 15-59 years was 516,838, accounting for 64.75% of the total population; and the population aged 60 years and above was 71,415, accounting for 8.95% of the total population, of which the population aged 65 years and above was 8.95%. 8.95% of the total population, of which 44,772 were aged 65 and above, accounting for 5.61% of

4189-454: The total population. The Lhasa–Shigatse Railway connects Shigatse Railway Station with Lhasa and further connects with Qinghai via Qinghai–Tibet Railway . It takes about three hours to travel between Lhasa and Shigatse by train. It is possible to get back to Lhasa within the same day by train. Shigatse Peace Airport began operations on 30 October 2010 after an Airbus A319 landed safely, making it Tibet's fifth commercial airport. It

4260-404: The total population. The population living in towns and cities was 184,323, or 23.09% of the total population, while the population living in villages was 613,830, or 76.91% of the total population. Of the city's resident population, 42,501, or 5.32%, were Han Chinese ; 748,443, or 93.77%, were Tibetans ; and 7,209, or 0.9%, were other ethnic minorities . Compared with the 2010 Chinese Census ,

4331-547: The traditional "three-branched" classification of the Tibetic languages , the Lhasa dialect belongs to the Central Tibetan branch (the other two being Khams Tibetan and Amdo Tibetan ). In terms of mutual intelligibility , speakers of Khams Tibetan are able to communicate at a basic level with Lhasa Tibetan, while Amdo speakers cannot. Both Lhasa Tibetan and Khams Tibetan evolved to become tonal and do not preserve

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4402-554: The understanding of evidentiality across languages. The evidentials in Standard Tibetan interact with aspect in a system marked by final copulae, with the following resultant modalities being a feature of Standard Tibetan, as classified by Nicolas Tournadre : Unlike many other languages of East Asia such as Burmese , Chinese , Japanese , Korean and Vietnamese , there are no numeral auxiliaries or measure words used in counting in Tibetan. However, words expressive of

4473-469: The western provinces of China, which are much less developed than eastern China. The railway will be extended to Zhangmu via Shigatse ( 日喀则 ) to the west, and Dali via Nyingchi ( 林芝 ) to the east. A further extension is planned to link Shigatse with Yadong near the China- India border (Map). The railway is considered one of the greatest feats in modern Chinese history by the government, and as

4544-573: The word-initial consonant clusters , which makes them very far from Classical Tibetan , especially when compared to the more conservative Amdo Tibetan. Like many languages, Lhasa Tibetan has a variety of language registers : Tibetan is an ergative language , with what can loosely be termed subject–object–verb (SOV) word order . Grammatical constituents broadly have head-final word order: Tibetan nouns do not possess grammatical gender , although this may be marked lexically, nor do they inflect for number . However, definite human nouns may take

4615-645: The world at 4,905 m (16,093 ft) above sea level. In 2022, the Chinese government announced plans for the line to be electrified . Construction started in June 2022 and is expected to take three years, at a total cost of 14.84 billion yuan . The capital of the Qinghai Province, Xining , became connected with the rest of the country by rail in 1959, when the Lanqing Railway from Lanzhou

4686-471: The world's highest railway, the line is also the holder of numerous other records; the line includes the Tanggula Pass , the highest point on a railway in the world at 5,072 m (16,640 ft) above sea level, and Tanggula railway station at 5,068 m (16,627 ft) is the world's highest railway station. The 1,338 m (4,390 ft) long Fenghuoshan tunnel is the highest rail tunnel in

4757-599: The world's highest. Peru's Ticlio railway station at 4,829 m (15,843 ft) is the highest in the Americas ( Cóndor station ; at 4,786 m or 15,702 ft, on the Rio Mulatos-Potosí line , Bolivia , and La Galera station at 4,777 m or 15,673 ft, in Peru , being the next highest). The Qingzang Railway project involved more than 20,000 workers and over 6,000 pieces of industrial equipment , and

4828-431: Was completed in five years at a cost of $ 3.68 billion. Track-laying in Tibet was launched from both directions, towards Tanggula Mountain and Lhasa, from Amdo railway station on 22 June 2004. On 24 August 2005, track was laid at the railway's highest point, the Tanggula Pass , 5,072 m (16,640 feet) above sea level. There are 44 stations, among them Tanggula Mountain railway station, at 5,068 m (16,627 ft)

4899-478: Was completed. The 815 km (506 mi) section of the future Qingzang Railway from Xining to Golmud , Qinghai opened to traffic in 1984. But the remaining 1,142 km (710 mi) section from Golmud to Lhasa could not be constructed until technical difficulties of building railroad tracks on permafrost were solved. This section was formally started on 29 June 2001, finished on 12 October 2005, and signaling work and track testing took another eight months. It

4970-420: Was only commensurate with 54 RMB in coastal regions of China, mainly due to high transport costs. The railway could elevate living standards along the route. Environmentalists and Tibetan independence activists protested against the construction of the railway. The Tibetan government-in-exile believes that the line and the further expansion of the rail network will contribute to further influx of Chinese people,

5041-443: Was the main language of instruction in 98% of TAR primary schools in 1996; today, Mandarin is introduced in early grades only in urban schools.... Because less than four out of ten TAR Tibetans reach secondary school, primary school matters most for their cultural formation." An incomplete list of machine translation software or applications that can translate Tibetan language from/to a variety of other languages. From Article 1 of

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