In the final chapter of his terrific 1988 book Riding the Iron Rooster, about riding trains through China, Paul Theroux wrote of the difficulty in traveling from China to Lhasa, Tibet—“six days overland from Xian, or else a long and frightening flight from Chengdu.” Later, he continued, “[T]he main reason Tibet is so undeveloped and un-Chinese—and so thoroughly old-fangled and pleasant—is that it is the one great place in China that the railway has not reached. The Kunlun Range is a guarantee that the railway will never get to Lhasa.” If only it were so. Earlier this week, after years of construction, a train completed the first journey from Beijing to Lhasa along what is now the world’s highest railway, topping out at a breathtaking 16,640 feet. “Laptop computers and digital music players failed because the tiny air bags that cushion their moving parts broke,” the AP reported via the Los Angeles Times. “Some passengers threw up. Others took Tibetan herbs or breathed oxygen through tubes.”

According to the Christian Science Monitor, the trip from Beijing to Lhasa costs about $46 and takes two days.

It’s a monumental development with huge cultural and ecological ramifications.

Wired has a fascinating story about its construction. It suggests global climate change could result in trains running off tracks if they are not properly maintained, even as early as 10 years from now.

Others are focusing on environmental problems that could result from the railway.

But the railway’s most profound impact could be in the way it alters Tibetan culture and changes the once isolated region.

The Dalai Lama’s nephew compares the railway’s construction to an invasion of Tibet. From Reuters:

“This is the second invasion of Tibet,” Khedroob Thondup, whose father is the Dalai Lama’s older brother, told Reuters in a rare interview. He regularly commutes between Taipei and Darjeeling in India.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has occupied Tibet since 1950. Nine years later, the Himalayan region’s god-king, the Dalai Lama, fled to India after a failed uprising.

“Politically, China wants Tibetans to become a complete minority and to dilute Tibetan culture and identity,” said Khedroob, 54, who travelled frequently to China with his father in the 1990s for talks which dragged on for about a decade.

“Strategically, Tibet will become one of China’s biggest military zones primarily to combat the influence of India. This railroad will complement quick militarisation of Tibet.”

Not surprisingly, People’s Daily Online quotes at least one villager high in the mountains watching the train pass as saying, “It’s a miracle.”

Theroux, for his part, wasn’t disappointed that he couldn’t ride the train into Tibet during his China rail odyssey. Of his belief that the train would never reach Lhasa, he wrote, “That is probably a good thing. I thought I liked railways until I saw Tibet, and then I realized that I liked wilderness much more.”