China developing plans for rail line under Mount Everest and high speed rail connection to South Korea

http://ift.tt/hZ0OVi

1.

China is considering extending a railway line linking the country to Nepal via a tunnel under Mount Everest, according to Chinese state media.



The project is expected to be completed by 2020, the newspaper cited a Tibetan official as saying. Extending the line would potentially forge a crucial link between China and the huge markets of India. It was raised by the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, on a visit to Kathmandu in December, according to Nepalese reports.



“The line will probably have to go through Qomolangma so that workers may have to dig some very long tunnels,” railway expert Wang Mengshu told the China Daily, referring to Mount Everest by its Tibetan name.



Owing to the challenging Himalayan terrain, with its remarkable changes in elevation, trains on any line to Kathmandu would probably have a maximum speed of 75mph (120km/h), he added.



China has three international high-speed rail projects that are in various stages of planning and development.



One would run from London via Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Kiev and Moscow, where it would split into two routes, one of which would run to China through Kazakhstan and the other through eastern Siberia. Another would begin in the far-western Chinese city of Urumqi and then run through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey to Germany, and the last would begin in the south-west city of Kunming and end in Singapore.

Read more »

Reposted via Next Big Future