[the Communist Party of China (CPC) people’s spiritual pedigree] Carry forward the spirit of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, challenge the limits and create first-class achievements.
On July 1, 2006, after five years of arduous struggle by 130,000 builders, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which attracted worldwide attention, was opened to traffic. At this time, it has been nearly 50 years since the first phase of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway started in 1958.
While creating a number of world firsts such as the longest route, the highest altitude and the fastest speed, the Qinghai-Tibet railway people overcame all kinds of unimaginable difficulties with amazing perseverance and courage, wrote a glorious chapter in the history of human railway development with painstaking efforts and sweat, and formed the Qinghai-Tibet railway spirit of "challenging the limit and bravely creating the first class", leaving precious spiritual wealth.
Brave heroism
Recalling the experience of losing 20 kilograms in the first month, Zhang Peng, a worker of China Railway Fifth Bureau who participated in the construction of Qinghai-Tibet Railway, still has a lingering fear. As the monitor of woodworking class, after Zhang Peng came to Kunlun Mountain, he suffered from altitude sickness, dizziness, headache, chest tightness, palpitation, frequent internal heat and nosebleeds, sudden weight loss and hair loss.
Such difficulties abound in the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Qinghai-Tibet Railway is the plateau railway with the highest altitude and the longest route in the world. It is called "the most difficult railway project in history" because of the three world-wide problems of "permafrost, cold and lack of oxygen and fragile ecology".
Especially in the 1950s, the 814-kilometer Xining-Golmud section project took more than 20 years to complete. Among them, the bottleneck project — — The 4.01km-long Laoguanjiao Tunnel was shut down several times due to the difficult natural environment and construction technical conditions at that time, and was officially opened to traffic in 1982. The construction team also paid a huge price for this. During the construction of Guanjiao Tunnel alone, 55 builders gave their lives and wrote an epic heroic chapter in the history of Qinghai-Tibet Railway construction.
Despite this, the army of construction is still advancing wave after wave. After arduous struggle, the Xige section of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was put into operation on May 1, 1984. At the beginning of the opening of the Xige section, the operators of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway overcame various difficulties and ensured the safety and smoothness of the "Steel Avenue on the Roof of the World" with a high sense of mission and tenacious style. It is also under the nourishing irrigation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway people that the spirit of the old Qinghai-Tibet Railway, "the spirit of hardship rooted in the plateau, the entrepreneurial spirit based on one’s own duties, the spirit of cooperation and love, and the spirit of obscure dedication", was conceived and carried forward, laying a solid foundation for the later casting of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway spirit.
In the new century, although the production and living conditions have improved, the style of Qinghai-Tibet railway people who are not afraid of difficulties and challenges the limit has not changed.
After the 8.1-magnitude earthquake on Kunlun Mountain, in order to avoid the greater risk of tunnel collapse, Zhang Peng took the lead in rushing into the landslide area. Under his leadership, everyone fought bravely for the first place, cleaning up the landslide and strengthening the temporary support, while spraying concrete on the top of the tunnel to prevent further landslides. After six days of continuous fighting, the landslide was finally stopped.
In order to test the frozen thickness and prepare for the excavation of the foundation pit of the main pier, Dai Dengyu, deputy commander of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Engineering Command of China Railway Bridge Bureau Group, and his party of eight people came to Lhasa River to cut ice and dig a pit on a cold winter night. The data was obtained, but all eight people were rushed to the hyperbaric oxygen chamber of the hospital for treatment.
Numerous examples fully show the heroic spirit of Qinghai-Tibet Railway people who are rooted in snowy areas, accompanied by hardships, lack of oxygen and spirit, and are not afraid of hardship.
A scientific attitude of seeking truth and being pragmatic.
According to the needs of the times, a spirit will show different connotations.
In the early days of the founding of New China, the spirit of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway more reflected the revolutionary heroism of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. With the development of the times, the spirit of Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the new century has more spiritual connotations of scientific construction and scientific management.
In May 1984, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians finally repaired the first phase of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway from Xining to Nanshankou of Golmud. However, until 2001, the railway track was still lying quietly at the Nanshan Pass at an altitude of 2,800 meters, and did not extend any further. The biggest obstacles are frozen soil, cold and lack of oxygen. It takes courage, wisdom and technology to build the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
Even in the mainland with better conditions, it will take two years to complete the super-large bridge, but it took only 11 months on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau!
During the construction of Sanchahe Bridge on Qinghai-Tibet Railway, Liu Guang, deputy general manager of the Third Company of China Railway 14th Bureau Group, led the technical team to tackle key scientific and technological problems, read a large number of domestic and foreign materials, went to the design institute for consultation with relevant experts many times, and went deep into the local meteorological and highway departments to investigate and understand, and finally determined the winter construction scheme of "building greenhouses, steam curing, strengthening measurement, improving technology, rational layout and comprehensive operation". It is the first time for the winter concrete construction of cold railway bridges in the world, which fills the gap in the construction technology of railway bridges in China.
"During the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the railway system, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academy of Engineering, Qinghai-Tibet provinces and relevant scientific research units, universities and enterprises jointly tackled key problems, made breakthroughs, and achieved leadership, which amazed the world." Lu Chunfang, chairman of the China Railway Society, said that in the subsequent high-speed rail construction, this character has also been inherited and carried forward, giving full play to the dual advantages of the socialist system in concentrating on major events and allocating resources in the market. In the past 20 years, China has achieved a leap from running with each other and running with each other.
During the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the former Ministry of Railways put forward the general requirements of "striving for dedication, relying on science and technology, ensuring health, caring for the environment and striving for first-class", and "surviving before production" and "striving without sacrifice" became a consensus. The railway department established the first plateau disease prevention and treatment center in Golmud, and established a three-level medical security system in the whole line. During several years of construction, tens of thousands of builders have achieved "zero death" of altitude sickness in the cold and oxygen-deficient and particularly harsh natural environment.
After the opening of operation, China Railway Qingzang Group Co., Ltd. supported by science and technology, adopted advanced train operation control, safety monitoring system and active insulation of frozen soil subgrade to ensure the safety and stability of Qinghai-Tibet Railway. In the past 20 years of construction and 15 years of operation and maintenance management, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has created many experiences, both in technology and management, and many experiences have been successfully applied to the engineering construction of the whole railway and even the whole country.
Do not forget your initiative mind’s responsibility
On July 1, 2006, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was opened to traffic, and 100,000 iron troops were evacuated from Qinghai-Tibet, but one team stayed. This is China Railway Construction 12th Bureau Group, and their new task is to maintain the 525.547 km frozen soil line south of Tanggula of Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
It is better to use it when it is built. The vast number of builders and operators of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway are concerned about the people of all ethnic groups, uphold the responsibility, are not afraid of difficulties and hardships, and shoulder the responsibility of managing and operating the world-class plateau railway, enriching and expanding the connotation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway spirit.
It’s not only the 12th Bureau Group that sticks to it all the year round, but also the Northwest Institute of China Railway Research Institute for more than half a century. At the beginning of 1961, the Northwest Institute of China Railway Research Institute established the first plateau frozen soil observation station in China and the only one in the world at an altitude of 4,780 meters, and conducted long-term and systematic observation and research on permafrost. In the face of the harsh natural conditions such as severe hypoxia, long winter and the lowest temperature of MINUS 40 degrees Celsius, three generations of scientific researchers have made silent dedication for half a century, and measured more than 12 million meteorological and geothermal data in plateau permafrost regions, which condensed into 29 major scientific research achievements with their youth and even their lives, providing scientific basis for solving the problem of permafrost and building the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Until now, they still stick to the wind volcano, constantly observing the changes of frozen soil, meteorology and subgrade, and providing continuous guarantee for the operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
The completion and operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway ended the history that Xizang was closed to railways, opened a door to the inland and the international for Xizang, and realized the Millennium aspirations of the people of all ethnic groups in Xizang, which made the world admire it. From the opening of Qinghai-Tibet Railway in 2006 to the end of June, 2021, Qinghai-Tibet Group Co., Ltd. has transported 267 million passengers and 690 million tons of goods, which has brought strong transport support to Qinghai and Xizang to implement the strategy of fully opening up.
The legend has been written, and the dream continues. Adhering to the initial intention of serving the people, following the opening and operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the railway department has successively completed and put into operation the Lhasa-Shigatse Railway, the Dunhuang Railway and the Geku Railway, and completed the capacity expansion and reconstruction projects of the Xinguanjiao Tunnel and the Gela Section of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. On June 25th this year, Xizang Autonomous Region’s first electrified railway — — The Lhasa-Linzhi Railway was put into operation, and the Shuang Yuan EMU of Fuxing Plateau was put into operation simultaneously, and Fuxing entered Xizang for the first time. Sichuan-tibet railway Yalin Section also started construction in November 2020. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader gave important instructions to sichuan-tibet railway to start construction, and pointed out that guangtong-dali railway builders should carry forward the spirit of "two roads" and Qinghai-Tibet Railway, carry out scientific construction, safe construction and green construction, promote engineering construction with high quality, and make new contributions to building a socialist modern country in an all-round way.
Standing at a new historical starting point, the spirit of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will surely lead us to forge ahead, accelerate our running on the road of realizing the goal of "two hundred years" and write a more magnificent chapter in the great journey of realizing the Chinese nation’s great rejuvenation of the Chinese dream. (Economic Daily reporter Qi Hui)