Chinese rail under Mount Everest

By Haroon Siddique and Jason Burke

China is considering extending a railway line linking the country to Nepal via a tunnel under Mount Everest, according to Chinese state media. The proposal is the latest in a series of ambitious rail schemes Beijing is reportedly examining. It comes amid scepticism about whether some of the projects will ever get off the ground and at a time of a growing Chinese presence in Nepal, which has caused some concern in rival regional power India.

Mount Everest at sunrise. According to state media, China is in talks with Nepal to build a rail tunnel under the mountain.  Photograph: Kristy Durbridge/Alamy

Kathmandu, Nepal. Photograph: Stoneography/Getty Images/Flickr RF

The Qinghai-Tibet railway already links the rest of China with the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and beyond, and an extension running as far as the international border is already being planned "at Nepal's request", the China Daily quoted a railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering as saying.

The project is expected to be completed by 2020, the newspaper cited a Tibetan official as saying. Extending the line would potentially forge a crucial link between China and the huge markets of India. It was raised by the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, on a visit to Kathmandu in December, according to Nepalese reports.

"The line will probably have to go through Qomolangma so that workers may have to dig some very long tunnels," railway expert Wang Mengshu told the China Daily, referring to Mount Everest by its Tibetan name.

Owing to the challenging Himalayan terrain, with its remarkable changes in elevation, trains on any line to Kathmandu would probably have a maximum speed of 75mph (120km/h), he added.

Last year, another state-run newspaper, the Beijing Times, reported that China was considering building a high-speed railway line to the US that would run for 8,080 miles, about 1,865 miles further than the Trans-Siberian railway. It would also include about 125 miles of undersea tunnel, which would be the world's longest, crossing the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska.

The Times also listed another three international high-speed rail projects that are in various stages of planning and development.

One would run from London via Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Kiev and Moscow, where it would split into two routes, one of which would run to China through Kazakhstan and the other through eastern Siberia.

Another would begin in the far-western Chinese city of Urumqi and then run through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey to Germany, and the last would begin in the south-west city of Kunming and end in Singapore.

It was unclear to what extent China had consulted any of the other countries whose consent would be required, although it was announced in August that Thailand's military junta had approved a $23bn (£13.6bn) transport project that would see two high-speed railways link up directly with Kunming, via Laos, by 2021. The line would form part of the planned route to Singapore, which would also run through Malaysia.

The growing Chinese presence in Nepal goes beyond roads and railways, with massive hydroelectric projects, airports and a pilgrimage centre at Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, all slated to receive substantial funding from Beijing.

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A map of proposed Chinese high­speed rail lines in Asia. It is unclear to what extent China has consulted with countries whose consent would be required or if the lines were to be built. (Guardian graphic Source: The Transport Politic)

The number of tourists from China is also rising rapidly. Though overall tourist arrivals by air declined in 2014, visitors from China grew by nearly 20% to more than 71,107. More flight connections are also planned. Chinese-made goods flood the markets of Kathmandu and Pokhara, the western Nepalese city, and new language schools teaching Mandarin - generously subsidised by Beijing - are increasingly popular.

Indian analysts say Beijing's influence is a concern but often exaggerated."The Chinese are giving it a hard try but the ties with India are very strong," said G. Parthasarathy, a retired senior Indian diplomat and commentator. "There's a natural geography and history to our relationship [with Nepal]. Yes, they can build a few roads but they can't employ five million Nepalese. And how many Nepalis are migrating to China? Then there are affinities and culture too."

The rivalry between the two Asian powers is intense, however, with India scoring some successes recently in pushing back against Beijing's efforts to extend Chinese influence into areas such as Sri Lanka, traditionally seen as Delhi's backyard. A change of government in Sri Lanka has led to megaprojects funded by Chinese loans and built by Chinese companies being shelved.

But Indian strategists are most worried about Bejing's links with India's western neighbour.

"We are much more concerned about the Chinese relationship with Pakistan, than with Nepal," said Parthasarathy.

Chinese plans to expand the rail network in Tibet have come under criticism from rights groups including the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), which has warned of the project's "dangerous implications for regional security and the fragile ecosystem of the world's highest and largest plateau".

"The Chinese government's claim that rail expansion on the plateau simply benefits tourism and lifts Tibetans out of poverty does not hold up to scrutiny and cannot be taken at face value," the ICT president, Matteo Mecacci, said last year.

(Guardian, UK)