First journey of Beijing-Tibet train on world’s highest railway

Some passengers breathed piped-in oxygen from tubes as the train passed its highest point, the 5,072-meter (16,640-foot) Tanggula Pass in Tibet's Tanggula Mountains. Three passengers threw up, while others had headaches - both symptoms of altitude sickness. About a third of the passengers used the oxygen tubes, though many said they did so out of curiousity, not discomfort.

Photo: First journey of Beijing-Tibet train on world’s highest railway

First journey of Beijing-Tibet train on world’s highest railway

The US$4.2 billion railway is part of efforts to develop China's poor, restive west and bind it more closely to the booming east. Chinese leaders hope greater prosperity will help to still calls by Tibetans and other ethnic minorities for autonomy from the communist Beijing government.

The line has prompted protests by activists who say it will bring an influx of Chinese migrants to the isolated Himalayan region, threatening its ecology and diluting its unique Buddhist culture, the AP reports.