Synopses & Reviews
A great yarn . . . [Lustgarten] also accomplishes something more valuable: He provides insight into the seat-of-the-pants nature of many of Chinas massive schemes.”The Washington Post Book World When the sky train” to Tibet opened in 2006, the Chinese government fulfilled a fifty-year plan first envisioned by Mao Zedong. As China grew into an economic power, the railway had become an imperative, a critical component of Chinas breakneck expansion and the final maneuver in strengthening the countrys grip over this last frontier.
In Chinas Great Train, Abrahm Lustgarten, an investigative reporter with ProPublica, explores the lives of the Chinese and Tibetans swept up in the project. He follows Chinese engineer Zhang Luxin as he makes the trains route over the treacherous mountains and permafrost possible (for now), and struggling Tibetan shopkeeper Renzin, who is caught in a boomtown that favors the Han Chinese. As the railwaythe highest and steepest in the worldextends to Lhasa, their lives and communities fundamentally change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.
Lustgarten offers an absorbing and provocative firsthand account of the promise and costs of the Chinese boom.
Abrahm Lustgarten is a contributing writer for Fortune magazine and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation grant for international reporting. His articles have appeared in Esquire, The New York Times, Outside, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Adventure, Salon, and many other publications, and in 2003 he was awarded the Horgan Prize for excellence in science reporting. He splits his time between New York City and Oregon.
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 Chinas breakneck expansion and the final maneuver in strengthening Chinas 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 trains 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 favors the Han Chinese. As the railwaythe highest and steepest in the worldextends to Lhasa, and Chinas Go West” campaign delivers waves of rural poor eager to make their fortunes, their lives and communities fundamentally change, sometimes for good, sometimes not. "Following the lives of two engineers and a doctor, Lustgarten chronicles an incredible feat of modern engineering: the construction of a railway connecting Tibet to the rest of China . . . Lustgarten translates the palpable excitement of being a builder in a nation where builders rule. He also accomplishes something more valuable: He provides insight into the seat-of-the-pants nature of many of China's massive schemes."John Pomfret, The Washington Post
"Abrahm Lustgarten's fine book China's Great Train is one of the few works to bring the Western reader inside the heads of China's builders. Following the lives of two engineers and a doctor, Lustgarten chronicles an incredible feat of modern engineering: the construction of a railway connecting Tibet to the rest of China. Opened in July 2006, the line is known for its superlatives. It crosses the Tanggula Pass at 16,640 feet above sea level, making that section of track the world's highest; 80 percent of the entire line is above 12,000 feet; more than half the track was laid on permafrost. But for Lustgarten, a contributing writer for Fortune magazine, the building of the railway is not just a great yarn. It's also a microcosm of how the Communist Party has refashioned China in the last 30 years. In chapters entitled 'The Gambler' and 'The Race to Reach Lhasa,' Lustgarten translates the palpable excitement of being a builder in a nation where builders rule. He also accomplishes something more valuable: He provides insight into the seat-of-the-pants nature of many of China's massive schemes. Reading China's Great Train, we recognize China's engineers, and by extension its leadership, for what they are: some of the world's biggest risk-takers. Geeks with guts. China's great train project obviously was not built simply to satisfy the ambition of engineers. It was also part of a strategy to bind Tibet to the rest of China for geopolitical reasons as well as for internal security. Since Tibet was first incorporated into Communist China in 1951, the Roof of the World has rested uneasily on the Middle Kingdom. An anti-Chinese rebellion erupted in March 1959, prompting the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, to flee to India. Demonstrations in March 1989 to commemorate the first rebellion resulted in more bloodshed and the imposition of martial law. In the early 1980s, China's leaders experimented with a softer policy toward Tibet, but by the time engineers had taken control in the late 1980s, the policy had toughened. The only way to deal with Tibet, China's engineer-leaders believed, was to develop the economy and encourage Han Chinese to migrate into the region, flooding Tibet's population of 2.6 million with a sea of Chinese. As the GDP rose, they assumed, separatist activity would fade. Following several Tibetan families, Lustgarten shows that equation to be false. In developing Tibet, he writes, China's engineers have helped the Chinese, not the Tibetans. Tibetans were shut out even from the low-paying, back-breaking jobs building the railroad. As for mining and other big-ticket projects that are supposed to enrich Tibet, they are uniformly managed and staffed by Han Chinese. After reading Lustgarten's book, it's pretty clear why another wave of Tibetan protests against China's rulebigger and even more violent than the protests of 1989swept through the region this March."John Pomfret, The Washington Post Book World
"Forget those romantic images of the 'Forbidden City.' These days, Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, should be called the 'Globalized City.' The Chinese overseers of the Tibetan capital have transformed its quaint byways and spectacular setting with a familiar mishmash of block apartment complexes, wide highways, strip shopping, high-rise hotels, disco clubs, car dealerships and industrial parks. Immigrants from China have doubled Lhasa's population in a few years to 500,000 residents. More than 70,000 private vehicles clog its streets. One of the primary reasons behind this transformation is the subject of Abrahm Lustgarten's illuminating and disheartening new bookChina's Great Train: Beijing's Drive West and the Campaign to Remake Tibet. The timely volume, in the aftermath of this spring's riots in Tibet, is a devastating eye opener, especially for those who give little thought to the embattled country other than when they encounter a bumper sticker urging, 'Free Tibet!' China's go west onrush into Tibet has parallels to what occurred in the American West after the transcontinental railroad spanned the country. Neither the landscape nor the native population was ever the same. The heart of Lustgarten's account is China's decision to build a railroad to Lhasa, a longtime dream of the country's leadership but still a technological nightmare in the 21st century. The railroad had to be built not only over mountainous terrain, with passes up to 17,000 feet high, but also across miles of unstable permafrost plateaus . . . Lustgarten covers considerable territory in China's Great Train, from Tibetan history and culture to train technology to human beings amid societal upheaval. His considerable talents meld these elements into a compelling narrativeeven when the transformation of Tibet often seems too sad for words."John Marshsall, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"The Qinghai-Tibet Railway carried with it the promise of substantial economic development for the mystical plateau region. Inevitably, it has brought hordes of Chinese into Tibet, but has it benefited the Tibetan way of life? In this vivid portrayal of the politics and the engineering challenge behind China's fulfillment of its fifty-year plan to build a railway from Beijing to Lhasa, Lustgarten's reporting has the ingredients of adventure, struggle, and bitter human costs. It does lead to an understanding, if not acceptance of the inevitability of 'progress,' with some disturbing truths revealed. A compelling and heartbreaking read."Mandala
"I can't think of any story that better captures the exhilaration and the agony of our pell-mell globalization. Chinas Great Train is a powerful piece of reporting and of reflection, and it never edges away from the tough questions."Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy
"Lustgarten has pulled off something quite extraordinary: by shining a finely-pointed and intimate light on a handful of people directly affected by one of the modern era's greatest engineering featsor follieshe has rendered a far broader portrait of what happens when two great cultures come into collision. In the process, he not only explores the age-old question of what price progress, but the far more essential question of just how progress might be defined. A must read for anyone who seeks to understand the colossal changes taking place in today's China."Scott Anderson, author of Moonlight Hotel and The Man Who Tried to Save the World
Chinas Great Train is a wonderful account of a project that combined technological ambition, nationalistic and ethnic hubris, and individual determination, cunning, and vision. It is a saga in the spirit of David McCulloughs accounts of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canalbut about a project happening right now. Its implications arent all positiveabout China, Tibet, or the process of modernizationbut Abrahm Lustgarten does an admirable job of leading the reader to surprising understandings of all those topics.”James Fallows, author of Blind Into Baghdad and Looking at the Sun
Lustgarten lifts the rug off the grand national project of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. His compelling descriptions of bureaucratic struggles and bitter human costs are contrasted with the great Chinese national pride and the heroism of those who tried to solve the problems to make the train work. This is an insiders view and an important contribution to understanding the enigmas of China.”James R. Lilley, author of China Hands and former U.S. ambassador to the Peoples Republic of China
"A careful account of the Chinese expansion into the Tibetan Plateau, accelerated by the completion of the world's highest railroad. Lustgarten notes that China has been working to incorporate Tibet wholly into its sphere since the invasion of 1959, when the Dalai Lama was forced into exile. To the chagrin of Communist technocrats, however, China could never quite figure out how to fund highways and other corridors of transport into the high country until recently, with the result that 'Tibet's infrastructure in the decades since [1959] had remained more tied to India and Nepal than to Beijingsomething Chinese nationalists found excruciatingly untenable.' Thanks to President Jiang Zemin's 'Go West' development initiative, though, Chinese settlers have pushed ever westward, resettling millions of ethnic Chinese into the remote interior. An important vehicle was the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, begun in 2001, which picked up on a failed effort begun and abandoned in 1979. The mountainous region, 'shockingly inhospitable to the lowlander Chinese,' has since been sprouting factories, shopping centers, housing developments and prisons, of course, for China has been striving to break the back of the Tibetan freedom movement. This train would, its builders hoped, 'finally provide a permanent, intractable link between Tibet and China,' if only by introducing enough ethnic Chinese into the region to outnumber the Tibetan population, and thus converting a backward place full of supposedly docile people into another industrial powerhouse. Reporters remarking on such developments, such as the Swiss journalist Jean-Marie Jolidon, have been summarily expelled from China. Lustgarten had better luck, but it is clear that he asked hard questions along the way, including ones to establish how expensive the whole railway project has turned out to be: about $4.5 billion, perhaps much more. Lustgarten's account, both journalistic and historical, is a welcome addition to the literature of Tibetan enslavement."Kirkus Reviews
Review
“I can't think of any story that better captures the exhilaration and the agony of our pell-mell globalization. Chinas Great Train is a powerful piece of reporting and of reflection, and it never edges away from the tough questions.”—Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy
"Lustgarten has pulled off something quite extraordinary: by shining a finely-pointed and intimate light on a handful of people directly affected by one of the modern era's greatest engineering feats—or follies—he has rendered a far broader portrait of what happens when two great cultures come into collision. In the process, he not only explores the age-old question of what price progress, but the far more essential question of just how progress might be defined. A must read for anyone who seeks to understand the colossal changes taking place in today's China."—Scott Anderson, author of Moonlight Hotel and The Man Who Tried to Save the World
“Chinas Great Train is a wonderful account of a project that combined technological ambition, nationalistic and ethnic hubris, and individual determination, cunning, and vision. It is a saga in the spirit of David McCulloughs accounts of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal —but about a project happening right now. Its implications arent all positive—about China, Tibet, or the process of modernization—but Abrahm Lustgarten does an admirable job of leading the reader to surprising understandings of all those topics.”—James Fallows, author of Blind Into Baghdad and Looking at the Sun
“Lustgarten lifts the rug off the grand national project of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. His compelling descriptions of bureaucratic struggles and bitter human costs are contrasted with the great Chinese national pride and the heroism of those who tried to solve the problems to make the train work. This is an insiders view and an important contribution to understanding the enigmas of China.”—James R. Lilley, author of China Hands and former U.S. ambassador to the Peoples Republic of China
Review
“I can't think of any story that better captures the exhilaration and the agony of our pell-mell globalization. Chinas Great Train is a powerful piece of reporting and of reflection, and it never edges away from the tough questions.”Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy
"Lustgarten has pulled off something quite extraordinary: by shining a finely-pointed and intimate light on a handful of people directly affected by one of the modern era's greatest engineering featsor follieshe has rendered a far broader portrait of what happens when two great cultures come into collision. In the process, he not only explores the age-old question of what price progress, but the far more essential question of just how progress might be defined. A must read for anyone who seeks to understand the colossal changes taking place in today's China."Scott Anderson, author of Moonlight Hotel and The Man Who Tried to Save the World Charles Bracelen Flood - Ramsey Campbell - Maggie Shayne - L.A. Banks - Kelley Armstrong - Katherine Ramsland - Joe R. Lansdale - Heather Graham - Cory Doctorow - C.J. Henderson - Kirkus - Anthony Quinn - Gahan Wilson - John Fowles - Anthony Quinn - Gahan Wilson - John Fowles - Gene Lyons - Jon Winokur - Neil Walsh - Andrew Leonard - Stephen R. 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Synopsis
A vivid account of China's unstoppable quest to build a railway into Tibet, and its obsession to transform its land and its people
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 maneuver 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 favors 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.
Lustgarten's book is a timely, provocative, and absorbing first-hand account of the Chinese boom and the promise and costs of rapid development on the country's people.
Synopsis
A great yarn . . . Lustgarten] also accomplishes something more valuable: He provides insight into the seat-of-the-pants nature of many of China's massive schemes.--The Washington Post Book World
When the sky train to Tibet opened in 2006, the Chinese government fulfilled a fifty-year plan first envisioned by Mao Zedong. As China grew into an economic power, the railway had become an imperative, a critical component of China's breakneck expansion and the final maneuver in strengthening the country's grip over this last frontier.
In China's Great Train, Abrahm Lustgarten, an investigative reporter with ProPublica, explores the lives of the Chinese and Tibetans swept up in the project. He follows Chinese engineer Zhang Luxin as he makes the train's route over the treacherous mountains and permafrost possible (for now), and struggling Tibetan shopkeeper Renzin, who is caught in a boomtown that favors the Han Chinese. As the railway--the highest and steepest in the world--extends to Lhasa, their lives and communities fundamentally change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.
Lustgarten offers an absorbing and provocative firsthand account of the promise and costs of the Chinese boom.
Synopsis
Lustgarten's book is a timely and provocative account of China's unstoppable quest to build a railway into Tibet, and the nation's obsession to transform its land and its people.
Synopsis
“A great yarn . . . [Lustgarten] also accomplishes something more valuable: He provides insight into the seat-of-the-pants nature of many of Chinas massive schemes.”—The Washington Post Book World When the “sky train” to Tibet opened in 2006, the Chinese government fulfilled a fifty-year plan first envisioned by Mao Zedong. As China grew into an economic power, the railway had become an imperative, a critical component of Chinas breakneck expansion and the final maneuver in strengthening the countrys grip over this last frontier.
In Chinas Great Train, Abrahm Lustgarten, an investigative reporter with ProPublica, explores the lives of the Chinese and Tibetans swept up in the project. He follows Chinese engineer Zhang Luxin as he makes the trains route over the treacherous mountains and permafrost possible (for now), and struggling Tibetan shopkeeper Renzin, who is caught in a boomtown that favors the Han Chinese. As the railway—the highest and steepest in the world—extends to Lhasa, their lives and communities fundamentally change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.
Lustgarten offers an absorbing and provocative firsthand account of the promise and costs of the Chinese boom.
Synopsis
“A great yarn . . . [Lustgarten] also accomplishes something more valuable: He provides insight into the seat-of-the-pants nature of many of Chinas massive schemes.”
The Washington Post Book World When the “sky train” to Tibet opened in 2006, the Chinese government fulfilled a fifty-year plan first envisioned by Mao Zedong. As China grew into an economic power, the railway had become an imperative, a critical component of Chinas breakneck expansion and the final maneuver in strengthening the countrys grip over this last frontier.
In Chinas Great Train, Abrahm Lustgarten, an investigative reporter with ProPublica, explores the lives of the Chinese and Tibetans swept up in the project. He follows Chinese engineer Zhang Luxin as he makes the trains route over the treacherous mountains and permafrost possible (for now), and struggling Tibetan shopkeeper Renzin, who is caught in a boomtown that favors the Han Chinese. As the railwaythe highest and steepest in the worldextends to Lhasa, their lives and communities fundamentally change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.
Lustgarten offers an absorbing and provocative firsthand account of the promise and costs of the Chinese boom.
Abrahm Lustgarten is a contributing writer for Fortune magazine and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation grant for international reporting. His articles have appeared in Esquire, The New York Times, Outside, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Adventure, Salon, and many other publications, and in 2003 he was awarded the Horgan Prize for excellence in science reporting. He splits his time between New York City and Oregon.
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 Chinas breakneck expansion and the final maneuver in strengthening Chinas 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 trains 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 favors the Han Chinese. As the railwaythe highest and steepest in the worldextends to Lhasa, and Chinas “Go West” campaign delivers waves of rural poor eager to make their fortunes, their lives and communities fundamentally change, sometimes for good, sometimes not. "Following the lives of two engineers and a doctor, Lustgarten chronicles an incredible feat of modern engineering: the construction of a railway connecting Tibet to the rest of China . . . Lustgarten translates the palpable excitement of being a builder in a nation where builders rule. He also accomplishes something more valuable: He provides insight into the seat-of-the-pants nature of many of China's massive schemes."John Pomfret, The Washington Post
"Abrahm Lustgarten's fine book China's Great Train is one of the few works to bring the Western reader inside the heads of China's builders. Following the lives of two engineers and a doctor, Lustgarten chronicles an incredible feat of modern engineering: the construction of a railway connecting Tibet to the rest of China. Opened in July 2006, the line is known for its superlatives. It crosses the Tanggula Pass at 16,640 feet above sea level, making that section of track the world's highest; 80 percent of the entire line is above 12,000 feet; more than half the track was laid on permafrost. But for Lustgarten, a contributing writer for Fortune magazine, the building of the railway is not just a great yarn. It's also a microcosm of how the Communist Party has refashioned China in the last 30 years. In chapters entitled 'The Gambler' and 'The Race to Reach Lhasa,' Lustgarten translates the palpable excitement of being a builder in a nation where builders rule. He also accomplishes something more valuable: He provides insight into the seat-of-the-pants nature of many of China's massive schemes. Reading China's Great Train, we recognize China's engineers, and by extension its leadership, for what they are: some of the world's biggest risk-takers. Geeks with guts. China's great train project obviously was not built simply to satisfy the ambition of engineers. It was also part of a strategy to bind Tibet to the rest of China for geopolitical reasons as well as for internal security. Since Tibet was first incorporated into Communist China in 1951, the Roof of the World has rested uneasily on the Middle Kingdom. An anti-Chinese rebellion erupted in March 1959, prompting the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, to flee to India. Demonstrations in March 1989 to commemorate the first rebellion resulted in more bloodshed and the imposition of martial law. In the early 1980s, China's leaders experimented with a softer policy toward Tibet, but by the time engineers had taken control in the late 1980s, the policy had toughened. The only way to deal with Tibet, China's engineer-leaders believed, was to develop the economy and encourage Han Chinese to migrate into the region, flooding Tibet's population of 2.6 million with a sea of Chinese. As the GDP rose, they assumed, separatist activity would fade. Following several Tibetan families, Lustgarten shows that equation to be false. In developing Tibet, he writes, China's engineers have helped the Chinese, not the Tibetans. Tibetans were shut out even from the low-paying, back-breaking jobs building the railroad. As for mining and other big-ticket projects that are supposed to enrich Tibet, they are uniformly managed and staffed by Han Chinese. After reading Lustgarten's book, it's pretty clear why another wave of Tibetan protests against China's rulebigger and even more violent than the protests of 1989swept through the region this March."John Pomfret, The Washington Post Book World
"Forget those romantic images of the 'Forbidden City.' These days, Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, should be called the 'Globalized City.' The Chinese overseers of the Tibetan capital have transformed its quaint byways and spectacular setting with a familiar mishmash of block apartment complexes, wide highways, strip shopping, high-rise hotels, disco clubs, car dealerships and industrial parks. Immigrants from China have doubled Lhasa's population in a few years to 500,000 residents. More than 70,000 private vehicles clog its streets. One of the primary reasons behind this transformation is the subject of Abrahm Lustgarten's illuminating and disheartening new bookChina's Great Train: Beijing's Drive West and the Campaign to Remake Tibet. The timely volume, in the aftermath of this spring's riots in Tibet, is a devastating eye opener, especially for those who give little thought to the embattled country other than when they encounter a bumper sticker urging, 'Free Tibet!' China's go west onrush into Tibet has parallels to what occurred in the American West after the transcontinental railroad spanned the country. Neither the landscape nor the native population was ever the same. The heart of Lustgarten's account is China's decision to build a railroad to Lhasa, a longtime dream of the co
About the Author
Abrahm Lustgarten is a reporter for ProPublica, the not-for-profit newsroom launched in 2008, and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation grant for international reporting. A former contributing writer for Fortune magazine, his articles have also appeared in Esquire, The New York Times, Outside, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Adventure, Salon, and many other publications. He lives in New York City.