(TibetanReview.net, Mar03’25) – China began building the Sichuan-Tibet Highway in 1950 to effectuate its invasion and occupation rule over Tibet and it still remains one of the world’s most challenging and dangerous roads. Many people are thought to have lost their lives on the highway – which connects Chengdu, capital of the Chinese province of Sichuan, to Tibet’s capital Lhasa – over the years, though it’s not known exactly how many, reported express.co.uk Mar 2, citing DangerousRoads.org.
The 2,416-km highway meanders through 13 snow-covered mountains over 4,000 metres high, crosses a dozen raging rivers, traverses eight world-class fault belts and countless swamps, permafrost areas, earthquake zones, landslide areas, glaciers and primeval forests, China’s official Xinhua news agency earlier report Jun 28, 2019.
That report said, “In 1950, about 110,000 people were summoned to build the road, with high morale but crude equipment. Over 4,000 had sacrificed their lives when the road was completed in 1954, ending the history of no modern highways in Tibet.”
The highway primarily consists of two routes. The more popular Southern Route is said to provide a slightly more direct route between the two cities, while The Northern Route “takes a more roundabout path to reach Lhasa and is known for its rich Tibetan culture” though both provide stunning views, the report said, citing TibetTour.org.
Sichuan-Tibet Highway is not easy for drivers to navigate, with its snake-like path winding through the mountainous landscape. Other challenges are stated to include notoriously difficult driving surfaces and hairpin turns.
Due to the extreme plateau climate and frequent natural disasters, the highway is plagued by snowstorms, landslides, avalanches and earthquakes all year around, which is why it is called an “encyclopaedia of highway distress,” said the Xinhua report cited above.
“The Sichuan-Tibet highway serves as the artery linking the plateau region and China’s inland areas, significantly alleviating the material shortage of Tibet over the past decades,” the report said.
But that was before China completed and began operating the 1956-km Qinghai-Tibet Railway in 2006.
China is currently building a Sichuan–Tibet railway, connecting Chengdu to Lhasa. It is considered the world’s most geologically challenging as well as a vital strategic defence railway project. When completed in 2030, the 1,629-km line will significantly cut travel time from Chengdu to Lhasa from 48 to 13 hours.
The railway’s entire section within China as well as that between Nyingtri and Lhasa in Tibet have already been completed and remain in operations. The final 1,011-km Ya’an–Nyingtri section, traversing the Tibet-China border,is expected to be completed in 2030. It will include 72 tunnels totalling 851 km, with some of them being more than 30-km, and the longest one being the 42.5-kilometre-long Yigong Tunnel.
Aside from passenger service, the railway will be capable of transporting 10 million tonnes of freight annually, said a Business Insider report Jul 18, 2021.