Train to Lhasa: A journey on board the world's highest railway system

On the world's highest railway line, the journey is very nearly the destination. But then, you arrive in Lhasa

The train pulls out of Xining station, one carriage at a time. The railway platform is empty except for a lone guard waving his green flag. My train carriage also falls silent, as if in anticipation of the journey that lies ahead. This is no ordinary train ride, after all: this is the Xining-Lhasa railway journey in China, the highest railway system in the world, 1,956 km of breathtaking landscape that forms the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.

The construction of this railway line is as much a marvel as the panoramic landscape it is built on. Built above 500 km of permafrost