0068 - Qinghai-Tibet Highway Asphalted. Resurfacinh of the Qinghai-Tibet Hi...Back

Qinghai-Tibet Highway Asphalted. Resurfacinh of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, the highest in the world, was completed on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Tibet Autonomous Region which falls on September 1. Opened to traffic in 1954, the 1,937km highway is the main transport artery to Tibet along which 80 percent of the goods from other parts of the country flow to the autonomous region. The highway starts at Qinghai provincial capital Xining, and then crosses rivers, traverses deserts and grasslands and climbs the Kunlun Mountains and the snow-covered Tanggula Range before it reaches Lhasa. Formerly a sand and stone place, the newly paved highway allows a lorry to run at 90 km per hour, instead of 20km per hour formerly. Some road sections totalling 560km built on high, permafrost ground frozen to a depth of 120m are not surfaced with asphalt, because this black substance would absorb solar heat to thaw the frozen roadbed. They are surfaced with polypropylene, instead.