We Built Railways on the Roof of the World 

Author: Wang Quanquan 

Paperback, 155 pages 

Published by Foreign Languages Press 

The jade-green Fuxing (rejuvenation) bullet train, snow white hada (prayer scarves), and beaming faces keep flashing into the photographer’s lens. It was a morning in June 2021 on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau: a Fuxing bullet train is racing toward its destination – Nyingchi Station in Xizang Autonomous Region. It was on that day the Lhasa-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Xizang Railway opened to traffic officially. 

Yet long before the ribbon-cutting ceremony, a group of people had already “enjoyed” the scenery. They were the Chinese workers who laid the tracks on the roof of the world. Their story has been captured through the lens of engineer Wang Quanquan, author and photographer of the book We Built Railways on the Roof of the World. 

Wang is the commanding officer of the Lhasa-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Xizang Railway for the 3rd Company of China Railway’s 11th Bureau. He is a passionate, determined, and hardworking person, qualities that define not only his approach to railway work but also his dedication to photography. In his book, he provides a glimpse into the lives of the workers who built this now-renowned railway, while also presenting a visual love letter to the unparalleled natural beauty and rich cultural tapestry of Xizang. 

Nearly two decades in the making, the book’s pages pair striking photography with a meticulously planned layout and an unmistakably heartfelt voice. Through blizzards and scorching summers, the images chronicle the tenacity of the railway builders who carved routes across the plateau. At the same time, they record personal memories that mirror the resilience of the Chinese people, the progress of Qinghai-Xizang’s ethnic regions, and the nation’s growing economic and technological might. 

With concise wording and powerful pictures, the book shows what their working days were like. “Each day, the crew had to climb a 30-meter-high girder erecting machine several times for inspections and adjustments. Many were terrified at first; then once accustomed, they moved as nimbly as gymnasts,” said Wang. Even looking at the photographs is dizzying; working at 4,000-5,000 meters above sea level, where breathing is not easy, seems barely believable. 

Laying machine, bridge launcher, rail panel, ballast tamping – terms most readers have never heard of before, appear in the book frequently. Without the captions, the machinery would be unidentifiable. By naming them and showing them in action, the book closes a long-standing gap: it lets the world watch the birth of a railway, and meet the plateau construction workers, who have braved altitude and icy weather to lay each gleaming section of track. 

Railway construction itself is nothing new; doing it on an oxygen starved plateau, where you can travel a hundred kilometers without spotting a household, is unimaginable. No restaurants, no shops – only wilderness. The workers spent endless days in that primal expanse. They lived in “rolling houses” parked on the rails, watching the high-altitude seasons turn the earth from green to yellow to white and back again until the job was done. 

Moreover, the book demonstrates the resilience and tenacity of Wang and his fellow railway engineers in conquering the “forbidden zone for humans” on the roof of the world, to construct a pathway to development, unity, and prosperity for Xizang. It also highlights their deep resolve to work with people of all ethnic groups in Xizang to forge a stronger sense of the Chinese nation as one community. 

As much as 85 percent of the land in Xizang sits over 4,000 meters above sea level. Nicknamed the “roof of the world,” it is a formidable place, where survival is a constant challenge and every misstep can be fatal. However, Wang, along with his fellow railway crew, chose to remain on the plateau to complete this miraculous marvel of modern railway engineering. 

“For years none of us ever thought of quitting. Bridges, machine, and builders form a sculptural moment of beauty,” Wang said. 

For those who wonder what the railway workers gained from such a dangerous, arduous job, it was perhaps nothing more than a railway well-built and wages to live on. Yet the gift they left behind is immeasurable: a new life for the plateau’s people, and closer contact between ethnic groups. “The greatest change,” Wang wrote, “is the change in people.” Grandfathers, children, women, Tibetan boys with schoolbags – people came to watch the railway advance across the snow-capped roof of the world. 

Today, in Xierong Village and other villages located near Wang’s worksite along the railway line, previously poverty stricken residents have taken out loans under poverty alleviation programs, to purchase heavy-duty construction machinery such as excavators, loaders, sprinklers, and trucks to build their own future. Thanks to the government’s effective policies, coupled with their own hard work, the villagers have become more prosperous and all have built new homes.