Train to Tibet | Travel China by Train | Chinese Train Photos

China Travel by First Class Train

Twenty years ago the acclaimed travel writer Paul Theroux spent a year travelling around China by train. He wrote a book about his experience and the book became a bestseller. Titled Riding the Iron Rooster, the book ends with a chapter named "The Train to Tibet". Theroux predicted in the book that it would be impossible for the Chinese to build a railway to Tibet due to insurmountable climatic and geological challenges including permafrost. Twenty years later the Chinese achieved what he thought to be impossible. And we happily rode the train to Tibet! The railway opened on July 1, 2006 and Laurus Travel had its first group of 20 riding the train to Lhasa in mid-July that year. We started out in Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, and arrived in Lhasa 25 hours later.

locomotive	all aboard!	sleeping car hallway	dining car
"hard" sleeper compartment sleeps 6, can be locked from inside	"soft" sleeper compartment sleeps 6, can be locked from inside	washroom	toilet on the train
"soft" seat class on a Chinese train, perfect for daytime travel

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