Critics Fear Railway May Impact Traditional Lifestyles

LHASA, CHINA - AUGUST 7: A train attendant stands guard as the Qinghai-Tibet train heads off on its way from Lhasa towards China on August 7, 2006 in Lhasa of Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Chinese tourists are flooding into Lhasa this summer with the recently completed $4.2 billion Tibet-Qinghai railway bringing an extra 3,000 people a day into the Tibetan capital. Critics of the railway say that it could threaten the cultural and even the physical landscape of the fragile Tibetan plateau which includes the Kunlun Mountains and accelerate Lhasa's changing face as it continues to expand into a modern Chinese city. Expensive hotels and shops have opened in the new section Lhasa while the Tibetan quarter fights to hold onto its cultural image. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)