* Astronomy

For centuries Tibet has been the embodiment of an exotic fantasy. A Buddhist Shangri-La, mysterious and remote, locked away within high mountains from the frenetic modernity of the outside world. But as the first train ever pulled up to Lhasa station on July 1 having hurtled across frozen tundra for more than 1,000 kilometers, a new chapter in Tibet's history began.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has unlocked the gate to the top of the world and unleashed with it a torrent of admiration and criticism. It's the world's longest and highest highland railway, an engineering marvel the Chinese government says will bring about an economic renaissance in a region that has thus far remained poor and underdeveloped. However, critics have raised the alarm regarding the destructive potential of the railway for Tibet's pristine environment and unique culture.

The Tibetan government in exile with the Dalai Lama at its helm has also highlighted the increased ease with which troops will now be able to be deployed in Tibet along with what they say is a political move on the part of Beijing to bring about demographic changes in the area by encouraging an influx of Han Chinese into the region.

The first Beijing-Lhasa Express rolled out of Beijing West Station at 9:30pm on July 1. A standard coach ticket, called a hard seat, sells for 389 yuan (US$48) from Beijing to Lhasa, while the price for hard sleeper or bunk costs 813 yuan and the price for a shared compartment or soft sleeper is 1,262 yuan.

The maximum train speed is expected to reach 100 kilometers per hour in the frozen earth areas and 120 kilometers per hour on non-frozen earth.

On the inaugural run, cameras flashed both inside and outside the train, passengers and onlookers alike hungry to record the moment. The excitement of being part of history in the making bound those on board, and passengers scurried between compartments, striking up conversations, and unusually for normally reticent Chinese, voicing opinions.

"Tibet can't remain shut off from the world forever," said Li Dan, a 27-year-old student from Jilin University. "It's not healthy for any culture and change is not in itself bad."

But more than any other topic it was the potential for suffering altitude sickness once in Tibet that first-time tourists seemed to obsess about. Lhasa, the traditional capital of Tibet and the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, is at 3,600 meters, and much of the route from Golmud in Qinghai province in the northwest onward is more than 4,000 meters above sea level.

Recorded announcements constantly replayed warnings for passengers to contact rail staff if they felt uncomfortable.

The first day of the almost 48-hour trip saw the train wind its way south to Hebei and Shanxi provinces and then west to the home of the Gobi desert in Gansu province. The journey's most stunning scenery, however, was reserved for day two when the Golmud-Lhasa stretch took about 850 passengers through the highest point on the trip: the 5072-meter Tanggula Pass border between Tibet and Qinghai.

Construction of the 1,142-kilometers Golmud-Lhasa section began June 29, 2001 and cost about about US$23.68 billion.

The pass is part of the formidable Kunlun range of mountains, long considered impenetrable. The range forms the northern flank of a huge area of permafrost that stretches for hundreds of kilometers across the Tibetan plateau toward the Himalayas. Above the permafrost is a layer of ice that melts and refreezes daily with the rising and setting of the sun. Laying railroads through such terrain was thought to be impossible until China took up the challenge five years ago.

Chinese engineers solved the problem by developing a technique that enabled them to permanently freeze the top level of ice and prevent it from its daily pattern of melting and refreezing. Coolants are pumped into the earth ensuring that the ground near tunnels and pillars remains frozen.

There has been some international skepticism regarding the sustainability of this solution, and some have even predicted that the railroad will collapse within 10 years. Chinese authorities, however, maintain confident in their technology.

"The Qinghai-Tibet railway is the realisation of a 100-year-old Chinese dream," said an announcement on the train's public address system. The mood on board was consequently self-congratulatory. "We Chinese can achieve anything," a China Central Television (CCTV) journalist boasted.

It took more than 100,000 workers to lay the rail tracks and complete other construction since work on the railway started in 2001. The altitudes at which they had to work were so high that crew members often had to be outfitted with extra oxygen supplies strapped to their backs. Zhu Zhengsheng, vice director of the Ministry of Railways, called it a "a miracle" no one died of altitude sickness during construction.

From Golmud extra oxygen is pumped into the train, and attendants demonstrate the use of special oxygen sockets situated throughout the carriages.

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