The Hotel on the Roof of the World Read Online Free Page A
Author: Alec le Sueur
the runway but were soon shrouded in the thick mist as the 707 struggled skywards.
Twenty minutes after take-off the aircraft emerged through the clouds which fill the Sichuan basin. Dawn broke over the cumulus and a rosy pink hue cast across the cloud ocean. China was way below, and there, ahead, above, lay the Tibetan plateau.
Fifty million years ago, or thereabouts, continental plates crashed together here, throwing up the Himalayas. Tibet lay on the edge of the Asian continent, while the Indian continent sailed full steam ahead on collision course, forcing Tibetâs sunbathing beaches several miles into the sky. The average height of the Tibetan plateau is over 16,500 feet (5,000 m) and there are more than fifty peaks higher than 23,000 feet (7,000 m). There are mole hills higher than Mont Blanc. Well, there would be if any moles lived in Tibet.
From the aircraft the dawn view of the approach to Tibet is a moving experience. The abrupt geographical line between China and Tibet tells you something about where you are going. You are gripped with a sensation that this flight is not like any other (as if you had not already realised) but this is a flight to somewhere special, somewhere magical, high above and beyond the clouds.
The plateau is deeply cut by twisted gorges between high mountain ranges. Even in this day and age the area is unsafe: outlaws and outcasts eke a meagre existence by the sides of the road cut through by PLA (Peopleâs Liberation Army) troops and prisoners in the 1950s. Due to the inhospitable terrain, the road was constructed with great loss of life. Sadly, today it is rarely used, as landslides tear long sections down each monsoon season. The Chinese military keep command of the route and it is rumoured that there are important military posts on the way, tunnelled into the hillsides.
Before the road was built, brigands and bandits inhabited every valley and watched over the remote passes. The French explorer Louis Liotard lost his life in an ambush over one of these mountain ranges. In 1940, his compatriot Andre Guibaut wrote of the furthest Chinese outpost on the edge of the plateau: âRobbers abound in this frontier town⦠It is quite common at dawn to find people lying stabbed and entirely stripped of their clothes.â
Perhaps CAAC isnât so bad after all.
Thin fingers of deforestation now stretch up the green slopes as trees are felled for the lumber markets of China. This beloved land of the early-twentieth-century plant hunters, who came in search of the seeds that created many of todayâs European gardens, is rapidly being carted away to the east, down the shaky PLA highway.
As the 707 toils on above the plateau, the deep ravines become shallow, and soft undulating hills stretch up to rounded snow caps. New roads fan out to reach the furthest tree covered slopes until the landscape changes to rugged snow peaks with bare black rock faces. Glaciers flood the valleys and dazzling turquoise lakes lie in the oval hollows between mountains. How people can survive down there defies the imagination but every so often there is a small cluster of Tibetan houses.
It is normally at this time, with your thoughts far away in the snow peaks, that you drift off to sleep, just in time to be woken up by the stewardess bringing along your present. One of the perks of flying CAAC is that you always get a little present. I now have a great collection of them, ranging from: tie pins, belts, bags, tablecloths, fans, plastic wallets, key chains, pollen extract, to my favourite â the CAAC postcard collection. One side of these cards have pictures of pretty CAAC scenes: planes flying into the sunset, stewardesses glistening in the blue sky etc. The reverse sides of the cards are taken up with helpful travel tips which are guaranteed to wake you up.
WHAT FACILITIES AND SERVICE CAN BE PROVIDED IN THE CIVIL PLANE?
The washing-room on board are located the front (middle) and back
Twenty minutes after take-off the aircraft emerged through the clouds which fill the Sichuan basin. Dawn broke over the cumulus and a rosy pink hue cast across the cloud ocean. China was way below, and there, ahead, above, lay the Tibetan plateau.
Fifty million years ago, or thereabouts, continental plates crashed together here, throwing up the Himalayas. Tibet lay on the edge of the Asian continent, while the Indian continent sailed full steam ahead on collision course, forcing Tibetâs sunbathing beaches several miles into the sky. The average height of the Tibetan plateau is over 16,500 feet (5,000 m) and there are more than fifty peaks higher than 23,000 feet (7,000 m). There are mole hills higher than Mont Blanc. Well, there would be if any moles lived in Tibet.
From the aircraft the dawn view of the approach to Tibet is a moving experience. The abrupt geographical line between China and Tibet tells you something about where you are going. You are gripped with a sensation that this flight is not like any other (as if you had not already realised) but this is a flight to somewhere special, somewhere magical, high above and beyond the clouds.
The plateau is deeply cut by twisted gorges between high mountain ranges. Even in this day and age the area is unsafe: outlaws and outcasts eke a meagre existence by the sides of the road cut through by PLA (Peopleâs Liberation Army) troops and prisoners in the 1950s. Due to the inhospitable terrain, the road was constructed with great loss of life. Sadly, today it is rarely used, as landslides tear long sections down each monsoon season. The Chinese military keep command of the route and it is rumoured that there are important military posts on the way, tunnelled into the hillsides.
Before the road was built, brigands and bandits inhabited every valley and watched over the remote passes. The French explorer Louis Liotard lost his life in an ambush over one of these mountain ranges. In 1940, his compatriot Andre Guibaut wrote of the furthest Chinese outpost on the edge of the plateau: âRobbers abound in this frontier town⦠It is quite common at dawn to find people lying stabbed and entirely stripped of their clothes.â
Perhaps CAAC isnât so bad after all.
Thin fingers of deforestation now stretch up the green slopes as trees are felled for the lumber markets of China. This beloved land of the early-twentieth-century plant hunters, who came in search of the seeds that created many of todayâs European gardens, is rapidly being carted away to the east, down the shaky PLA highway.
As the 707 toils on above the plateau, the deep ravines become shallow, and soft undulating hills stretch up to rounded snow caps. New roads fan out to reach the furthest tree covered slopes until the landscape changes to rugged snow peaks with bare black rock faces. Glaciers flood the valleys and dazzling turquoise lakes lie in the oval hollows between mountains. How people can survive down there defies the imagination but every so often there is a small cluster of Tibetan houses.
It is normally at this time, with your thoughts far away in the snow peaks, that you drift off to sleep, just in time to be woken up by the stewardess bringing along your present. One of the perks of flying CAAC is that you always get a little present. I now have a great collection of them, ranging from: tie pins, belts, bags, tablecloths, fans, plastic wallets, key chains, pollen extract, to my favourite â the CAAC postcard collection. One side of these cards have pictures of pretty CAAC scenes: planes flying into the sunset, stewardesses glistening in the blue sky etc. The reverse sides of the cards are taken up with helpful travel tips which are guaranteed to wake you up.
WHAT FACILITIES AND SERVICE CAN BE PROVIDED IN THE CIVIL PLANE?
The washing-room on board are located the front (middle) and back
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