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China Wants to Connect with Nepal Digging a Train Tunnel through Mount Everest

When the Chinese government wants to build a tunnel through the highest mountains in the World, there’s not a lot environmentalists can do about it. And that is exactly what the communist country is currently considering, a 540-kilometer (335 miles) strategic high-speed rail link between Tibet and Nepal, passing through a tunnel under Mt. Everest.
China Wants to Connect with Nepal Digging a Train Tunnel Dog through Mount Everest 1 photo
Photo: Google Street View
Like it or not, China is a superpower in constant development competition, investing in anything from green energy to infrastructure, with the last being the place where most of their money go to. And the country’s railways are among the busiest in the world, handling a quarter of the world’s rail traffic volume on only 6 percent of the world’s tracks in 2006. Two years ago, China had 103,144 km (64,091 miles) of railways, the third longest network in the world.

I mean, just look at these numbers, it’s no wonder they are actually considering digging a huge tunnel through the world's highest mountain. “A proposed extension of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to the China-Nepal border through Tibet would boost bilateral trade and tourism as there is currently no rail line linking the two countries,” state-run China Daily reported on Thursday. When? In about five years' time.

The rest of the communist country is already linked to the Tibetan capital Lhasa and beyond via the 1,956-km (1,215 mi) long Qinghai-Tibet railway. The purpose of the investment is obviously economical, considering that if the proposal becomes reality, bilateral trade especially in agricultural products will get a strong boost.

Wang Mengshu, a rail expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the project is being undertaken at Nepal’s request and that China has begun preparatory work.
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