China's Great Train
Beijing's Path West on the Lhasa Express
Abrahm Lustgarten(Author)
Times Books (Publisher)
Published on 13. May 2008
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-8050-8324-8 (ISBN)
Description
In the summer of 2006, the Chinese government fulfilled a fifty-year plan to build a railway into Tibet. Since Mao Zedong first envisioned it, the line had grown into an imperative, a critical component of China's breakneck expansion and the final manoeuvre in strengthening China's grip over this remote and often mystical frontier, which promised rich resources and geographic supremacy over South Asia.Through the lives of the Chinese and Tibetans swept up in the project, "Fortune" magazine writer Abrahm Lustgarten explores the "Wild West" atmosphere of the Chinese economy today. He follows innovative Chinese engineer Zhang Luxin as he makes the train's route over the treacherous mountains and permafrost possible (for now), and the tenacious Tibetan shopkeeper Rinzen, who struggles to hold on to his business in a boomtown that increasingly favours the Han Chinese. As the railway - the highest and steepest in the world - extends to Lhasa, and China's "Go West" campaign delivers waves of rural poor eager to make their fortunes, their lives and communities fundamentally change, sometimes for good, sometimes not.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
With dust jacket
Illustrations
Illustrations, maps
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8050-8324-8 (9780805083248)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2025
Times Books
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