At last, the ticket for the much-delayed train trip had been confirmed, and we would be taking the train Z264 from Guangzhou over ~53 hours and a distance of 4980km to Lhasa. [I had been fasincated by the Qinghai-Tibet train since I read about it opening in 2006😊]
Day1 Guangzhou 广州 - WuChang 武昌
There are 15 stations (including Guangzhou Station and Lhasa Station), and the train will ascend to an altitude of over 5000m. [We had taken the altitude pills a day prior to the journey, and would be taking it for the next 2 days as well.]
Guangzhou Railway Station - Station 1 - 9:15am
There are four railway stations in Guangzhou, the caiptal of Guangdong. Z264 departs from Guangzhou Railway Station, the station serving mainly the 'classic' lower speed green trains. I queued early at the front of the line [standing is also a form of exercise] 😊.
The gate opened about 15 minutes before the departure time, and we eagerly boarded the train. The cabin is clean and compact with two upper and lower beds and a small table. We had booked the entire cabin [Higher deck - 14680 rmb, lower deck - 15260rmb]. The hot water dispenser, toilet and wash area are at the end of the corridor, with a staff room in each carriage. There is a restaurant car serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The train moved off punctually. We 'assigned' our beds, unpacked our luggage (snacks, drinks, devices) and settled into our activites [Both were working and I looked at the rainy landscape and iPad] .
I was eager to go to the restaurant car for lunch [we were the first to arrive...😀]. The dishes were quite reasonably priced and the portions were big. The serving staff was friendly.
Chenzhou Railway Station 郴州 - Station 2 - 13:21
The weather has been gloomy, and it was raining rather heavy when the train arrived at ChenZhou in Hunan Province. It was a brief stop of 3 minutes before the train continued its journey.
The train passed by villages, greenery and built-up areas whenever the train was approaching a city or town.
ChangSha Railway Station 长沙 - Station 3 - 4:25pm
Changsha is the capital of Hunan Province. The train arrived at ChangSha for 6 minutes before moving off again.
[... next time to visit in Hunan: the ZhangJiaJie 🙌]
We had some snacks and fruits for tea break in the afternoon [Need to start lightening the 'food lugguage' before arriving in Lhasa ]. 😜
WuChang Railway Station 武昌 - station 4, 7:33pm
We had dinner. Upon the waitress's strong recommendation, we ordered the Gansu's (or is it Qinghai? ) specialty dish (requiring 24 hours advance order) for the next's day dinner. Before long, night fell and the train pulled into Wuchang station. Wuchang is one of the oldest cities that merged with Hanyang and Hankou to form Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province.
It was a longer stop of 21 minutes. I got out of the train to walk around the station. [J was working quite 'furiously' before the laptop's battery ran out - he did not pack the power cable, assuming that the usual cable worked 😟].
We got ready for the night, washing up and going to toilet before turning the light off.
Day 2 Zhengzhou Railway Station 郑州 - Delingha Station 德令哈
The train stopped at ZhengZhou (station 5) at 1:34am, and Luoyang (station 6) at 3:06am. [Quite obviously, I was sleeping soundly. If not, I would have taken a photo of the station 😴]
Xian Railway Station 西安 - station 7, 7:43am
Xian is the capital of Shaanxi. The sky was cleared, and now the train was moving west, and arrived at Xian Station.
[... next time to visit in Shaanxi : Hukou Waterfalls 🙌]
We had our breakfast, and then walked through the train to the different carriages. [Morning exercise? 😚]
Baoji Station 宝鸡 - Station 8 - 9:20am
Baoji is also a city in Shaanxi. By mid-morning, the train pulled into Baoji station for about 6 minutes. [As observed when at travelling along the Laos-China Yunnan's stations, people dashed out to smoke however short the time. 😐]
The landscape got more mountainous as the train continued heading west and then north into the vast grassland. Even though the area was less densely populated, the transport infrastructure of roads and rails were impressive.
The weather was sunny, and the temperature has dipped colder.
We had lunch and did our own activities. [Somehow the time passed well - at least for me 😌]
Lanzhou Station 兰州 - Station 9 - 3:05pm
Lanzhou is the largest and the capital city of Gansu province. The train arrived at ~3pm. The train stopped for 27 minutes and there is a kiosk selling a variety of snacks.
[... next time to visit in Gansu: Overhanging Great Wall, Jiayuguan and the Gobi Desert 🙌]
It is more mountainous, and the train was also climbing and gaining altitude.
Xining Railway Station 西宁 - Station 10 - 17:59
Xining is the capital of QingHai Province. Qinghai spreads over the high-altitude Tibetian Plateau. We packed our luggage and alighted from the train.
We changed to the Qinghai-Tibet train, the highest railway line in the world spanning 1956km with 960km above 4000m altitude. [Oxygen canisters were not allowed on the train]
After the train departed at 6:19pm, the staff visited each cabin to provide the phone number to call if we encountered any difficulties.
We had our dinner (reserved the day before). The train climbed onto higher elevation. The temperature has gotten colder outside but the cabin's temperature was okay. [J's laptop (really old version la) battery had ran out... He asked the other passengers but no one had the 'old-fashion' power cable. [When the staff was back in the staff cabin, he checked with her, and she pulled out an old cable from the drawer!😍😇😆]
The train's altitude was at ~3500m (high possibility for altitude problem) at about 9pm. [Being prone to altitude problem, I was still feeling ok but a bit apprehensive.]
Delingha Railway Station 德令哈 - Station 11 - 10:11pm
Delingha is at the Mongol-Tibetian Autonomous prefecture in north Qinghai Province. It was very cold outside when the train arrived at the station ~10pm.
We took turns to wash up and get ready to sleep. The train would continue to ascend to over 5000m by early next morning.
Day 3 - Golmud 格尔木 - Lhasa 拉萨
The trained stopped at Golmud (station 12) at 00:21am. [I had a fitful sleep with a dull headache 😟😔]
I woke up with a terrible headache. Looking out the window, the landscape was completely different from the day before. The train was travelling across the tibetian plateau with its rugged mountains, lakes and vast magnificent landscape. The sky was clear and the sun was very strong.
K bought breakfast from the restaurant so that we (J and I) could took the Panadol for our headache. We approached the staff about our altitude problem. Immediately, she went to the staff room to get the oxygen tube and gave one to each of us. She demonstrated how to use the tube with the oxygen outlet.
It was such a relief to breathe via the tube, I had a short sleep and the headache had subsided into the background. [Regret: we should have asked for the oxygen tube before we went to bed last night]. I continued to enjoy the oxygen-rich air via the tube [hmmm... can be addicted to it?! 😉]
The train passed the highest point, 5072m at Tanggula Pass.
Amdo Station 安多 - Station 13 - 8:47am
Amdo is in Tibet at an elevation of 4702m. It is believed to be the highest altitude passenger railway station in the world. The train arrived at Amdo Station just before 9am.
It stopped for 4 minutes before moving off again.
Nagchu Station 那曲 - Station 14 - 10:56am
Nagchu is the last station before arriving in Lhasa. The train stopped for 6 minutes before heading towards it's final destination, Lhasa.
The vast expense of land stretched onto the far snowy mountains and horizon, dotted with herds of cows and houses. Even in such a remote area, there are roads alongside the rail line.
At one juncture, we discovered that there was no oxygen supply and informed the staff. She said that most likely one of the passengers had smoked, and thus triggered the oxygen cut off. Before long, the oxygen was flowing again 😚 .
The staff informed the passengers that the train was approaching Lhasa, and for us to complete our packing. J returned the power-cable to her (with much appreciation). [Definitely a 10/10 for her help and services 😍😘]
Lhasa Station - Station 15 - ~2pm (The last station)
The train pulled into Lhasa Station and ending our train journey.
We exited the station. Our tour guide was waiting for us and we made our way to the hotel. All foreigners need to book a tour via a travel agency to visit Tibet.
I am glad that I did the Qinghai-Tibet rail train ride. I had always grouped the train ride and travelling around Tibet as a single trip. It's a challenge to allocate a longer timeframe at a preferred season for it. After the Laos rail, I decided that I didn't need to do both at once - it is still good to take the train in November with three days in Lhasa (and not extending to other parts of Tibet that's not quite accessible in winter/November).
There are several trains from Xining to Lhasa. We left Xining in the evening, thus missing out the Golmud, Kunlun mountain ranges, etc.
We realised belatedly that we had 'under-dosed' on our altitude pill. We took half instead of one pill. 😳😵😶
Where to next? 😊