China’s‘Sky Train’ shrouded in controversy

CHINA unveils an engineering marvel this weekend — a railway to Tibet that features hi-tech systems to stabilise tracks over permafrost and cabins enriched with oxygen to help riders cope with high altitudes.

Yet as with so much else in China’s often harsh 56-year rule over Tibet, the 710-mile railway to the Tibetan capital has drawn controversy even before the first train departs today.

Tibetans loyal to the exiled Dalai Lama say the €3.3 billion railway is part of a campaign by Beijing to crush Tibetan culture by encouraging an influx of Han Chinese, China’s majority ethnic group. And environmental groups worry about the railway’s impact on the Tibetan highlands.