Thanks everyone for letting me know about the video cutting out early. I had something come up yesterday evening, and so didn't get to the comments as fast as normal so I could sort out a prompt re-upload. My file on my computer is 18 minutes, so I'm not sure why this got cut off, but I should have checked. Anyway, I'm in the position of deciding whether to re-upload, and I decided not to as I think the annoyance of an extra notification isn't worth two minutes of content (plus, sadly, when I do a reupload the early audience won't watch, which sends a bad signal to the KZfaq algo, which means less people will see the video long term.). Therefore, I'm including the last two minute here in text form. My apologies folks, I know you're here to watch, not read. -- But the extensions are also set to take on a much more international feel. The Shigatse extension, that I just mentioned, will eventually continue down into Nepal, finishing at its capital Kathmandu. This line is expected to be open by 2024. The final possible extension is still very much theoretical at this stage. Comments made by the Qinghai People's Congress Vice Secretary-General Liu Palit seemed to suggest he supported the idea of continuing the extension into India, going as far afield as Mumbai, and possibly even Karachi in Pakistan. There have been very little concrete plans for this so far but who knows, maybe sometime in the future. THE ROOF OF THE WORLD China has achieved some truly memorable engineering feats in a relatively short period. On Megaprojects, we’ve done videos on both the Three Gorges Dam and the South-North Water Transfer Project - both of which involve some truly eye-boggling statistics. And while the Qinghai-Tibet Railway may not have the same dazzling prestige, just ask a rail engineer about how difficult it is to build a line with 80% of it above 4,000 metres (13,123ft). In many ways, this railway feels like it harks back to the early days of the railroad. It is a line that battles its way through an inhospitable environment, scaling mountains and traversing vast frozen plateaus. A truly revolutionary piece of engineering that travels through parts of the world that few venture into, and one that grazes the top of our world. They said the railway would never arrive in Lhasa. But they were wrong.

Just as a heads up Simon the end of the video isn’t cut properly

Huh, does it cut off the end for anyone else or is it just me?

"ETA, how can we get viewer engagement up?" "End the video early, then everyone will comment to tell you". Allegedly.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that the internet has brought us nerds together? Here we are geeking out on rail-lines, and I love it!

I guess the CCP came for Simon and ETA at the end.

I rode this line all the way from Beijing way back in 2011, it's an absolutely stunning trip. I remember as we passed through the highest pass that they pumped additional oxygen into the train cars and also everyone on the train collectively decided that it was nap time. They were right. It was absolutely nap time.

At 16:08 we discover Simon didn't pay his Internet bill.

Simon: *gets cut off* China: *"What an unfortunate event"*

China cut off the end of the video because they hate all the bald guys speaking about the Tibet 😅

At this point, I think we should purposely request megaprojects wherein your ability to pronounce the names is challenged to the point of craziness.

Good idea for the video. We mentioned Tanggula railway station in Tibet as the highest elevated station in the world at 5,068 m (16,627 ft) above sea level as one of rail related Guinness world records.

Will continue down into where Simon??? You can't just leave us hanging like that 😭😂😂😂

What happened to Simon? He got cut off mid-sentence.

The fact that they built a railway in such a tough environment is interesting indeed. Keep up the great work Simon!

Union Pacific Big Boys: The Biggest steam locomotives ever built.

Is the video supposed to end prematurely?

When the CCP marched into Tibet it was a place where slavery, child labor, and arranged marriage were very much the norm. The vast majority of Tibetan people lived in extreme poverty and were considered subhuman by the small number of land-owning nobleman that have engrained their rein of terror for centuries using religion by deifying their leader - the Dalai Lama - as god-incarnate. Not to say the CCP had purely ulterior motives or didn’t introduce oppression of their own, but not too sure either if what happened before that was a “traditional identity” most Tibetan people appreciated. This gross simplification of history really do piss me off.

Hey Simon, I enjoy your content I know you’re going to get 1 million comments about the video ending abruptly. I’ll let somebody else worry about it, keep up the good work Looking forward to seeing more future videos.

New drinking game: Every time Simon tries to say a challenging word or name, you drink! I'd be hammered right now!!

This is the railway line that only exists because someone said something couldn't be done, and someone else said, "hold my beer."

Wow, literally just watch the Spark documentary on this! Like 20 minutes ago! Excellent work guys, this is just as informative as an hour long documentary!

I think you should upload the last 2 minutes by it's self. We will still watch. I'm loving this new channel. Keep up the good work.

I visited Xining, Qinghai in 2012. I heard about the train line to Tibet while I was there, but I didn't realize it was such an engineering challenge. The effects of altitude were pronounced even within Qinghai. I remember being rather low energy on a drive through the mountains that took us just under 4000 m altitude.

I think Simon just really likes trains and he's been making all these channels to find a way to talk about them to the masses.

Have you done the Iowa Class Ships yet? Thinking we need a mega projects of that.

3:05 - Chapter 1 - Tibet 5:45 - Chapter 2 - Construction 8:00 - Chapter 3 - A permafrost problem 10:25 - Chapter 4 - Travelling along the line 12:00 - Chapter 5 - Trains 13:30 - Chapter 6 - Environnement 15:20 - Chapter 7 - Future extension

4000 meters is 13123 feet, I believe at that height airplanes must be pressurized.

Is a part 2 coming or did censorship rear its ugly head?

Looks like the video didn't export correctly, the end cuts off abruptly.

I liked the video mostly because of the explanation and the handling of the cutoff, in addition to the fantastic presentation. Like button smashed!

I took a bus ride from Golmud to Lhasa back in the 1980s. I recommend the new high speed trail option!

"Sorry your husband died at work" "How did he die?" "... You know... things...".

Let’s get a video on The Hubble Space Telescope 🔭

I was gonna comment about the cut-off, then I thought, there's no way Simon doesn't have something on this already! Thanks for adding the rest in the description. I"m loving these videos. I've just made myself a playlist of all the videos and am working my way through :D.

I traveled this line from Xining to Lhasa back in 2017, very very impressive.

Do the dutch delta works! Great backstory, very important for the future with the rising sea level

The end is cut short

Thanks for clearing up the ending error. I kept rewatching it thinking I missed something... lol

All of Simmon's videos are excellent. He really is very

Big muskie. World's largest drag line excavator

16:08 and the Chinese secret police have finally caught Simon for him daring to talk about the environmental impact of their projects

Continue down into nepa...? XD it’s ok, Simon...at any rate, masterfully done :)...keep em coming!

11:30 This station could have been a small oxygen plant and medical facility, an emergency pit stop :) ( Or maybe it is and we don't know ?)

Lol Free Documentary just released a full documentary on this yesterday. Just the way she goes I guess

In last sentence he is saying that the extention will lead down into Nepal.

Fascinating video.. I love this channel!!

For a video idea, how about Space Elevators? I know none have been built yet, but that hasn't stopped you before lol

You should do an episode on The Great Wall of China.

I got one: the Arecibo Observatory.

0:15 "even though I am sure there are going to be Chinese pronunciations which I am going to screw up" That was an understatement. Not even close on some of them. However the wealth of information in this clip more than made up for it. I took this train from Xining to Lhasa in 2019. Great journey. And all this background on the railway was much appreciated. Pronunciation hint: Think terracotta warriors, think Xī'ān, and you would get closer on the pronunciation of first character of Xīníng. Xī means west. The marks above the vowels indicate the tones (rising, falling, etc)

Woohoo, 5 ads in a single video, the best feature of your videos, love it /sarcasm

Simon,do an episode on LCA Tejas and the BrahMos missile please

China: "Simon, we don't like they irony you are using while talking about the Great Mother Land, we will pause your video while we think about it..."

The Gotthard Base Tunnel or the whole NRLA (New Railway Link through the Alps) would be a cool megaproject.

I kept getting visions of SNOWPIERCER as I listen to Simon list the train's specifications

The video ended in the middle

Great info but dislike the biased undertones of the host towards the Chinese government and the politicization of the project in regards to Tibet. Sounds like you can never be too positive about China’s development and stay on topic but need to lace it with a certain level of slander.

I just noticed, the exercise bike has turned into a sofa, smart move, sofas are much comfier to lounge on... :P

It has brought huge benefit to Tibet and local economy..

Uighur/Uyghur "Wee - Grr" i.e. the CCP's organ banks Also; video ends in the middle of a sentence?

How many times did you practice for all those names near the end?

The typic is "Qinghai-Tibet Railway: The Highest Railway in the World",but actually，it is "china is so bad,so bad.Railway?oh,I don't what is it".

Simon Whistler is a megaproject.

Fun fact: There is a popular Chinese folk song about the Qinghai-Tibet railway called 天路(The Road to Heaven), which highlights the extreme difficulty of constructing this railway and the fact that it's the highest elevation railway in the world. I grew up listening to this song everywhere, and it is frequently played on board trains in China, including outside of Tibet. On an 8 hour high speed train ride from Xiamen to Shanghai in 2010, the train's loudspeakers played 天路 and Jasmine Flower (another Chinese folk song) on a loop nonstop for the entire ride. The song neglects the many controversial aspects of this railway, but it serves the government's propaganda purposes very well.

"Can we truly trust China to give us accurate figures on the number of people who died?" As customary but damn, this hits really differently now with the ongoing pandemic.

You do get used to the altitude mostly within few days and definitely within few weeks, probably wouldn't have been an issue if they chose to employ more Tibeatans rather than just Hans. Some ICE do certainly underperform in those conditions.

Would be a life time journey to actually visit lhasa on this railway.

Anybody else get Simon cut off in the middle of saying something?

5:06, honestly it's both purposes. The communist party dictatorship benefits from both so it's both.

When I went to Tibet, we were suppose to take the train in, something I was really looking forward to, but the travel company changed the plans at the last moment. Instead we stayed in Chengdu for the time we would have been on the train, before flying directly in to Lhasa. But that did mean I got to pet a giant panda.

15:45 Simon is the first Westerner I've heard so far who actually pronounced the name Uyghur/Uighur correctly. Hats off to you boss man. Now to improve those Chinese pronunciations. 👏👏👏👏👏

Meticulous research.

Lol mega projects Today where looking at a video that ends abruptly leaving many fans quiet confused. Sponsored by square space.

I undertook this journey in May, 2013. It was spectacular. I ate very little on the train, and drank a lot of warm water, which may be the reason I had no problem with the altitude gain.

Paraphrase: "I was on one side of China, and then I went over 1000 miles, and things were different. Seriously, I'm not kidding." - Simon Whistler

Hey Simon. I live near a massive monument, the Gateway Arch in St.louis, Missouri USA I was wondering if you can do a video on it.

Id love to see a MegaProjects on the floodwalls we have here in the US. I think its such a terrible idea it would almost make an epic buisness blaze if there was more infi peovided.

can you do the tgv, with the turbotrain and the very different design from the shinkusen, i'm sure it would make a good video, and it's always nice to hear english people struggling with french word :p

I NEED IT TO FINISH MAN! OH MY GOD WHAT THE FINISH!?!?!?!?! Love you stuff! But honestly im starting to hear more and more of the Blaze in all your work.

You should do the Erie Canal of New York state, if you haven't already done it as a MegaProjects idea.

The SKA and Meerkat project in Southern Africa.

Now this line will be connected to Nepal.

The lasting environment impact probably not that significant considering it's just one track...one way traffic, i.e. low traffic

incomplete？ whatta？

you should do one about the concentration camps in tibet

Simon, linking this region to another topic for this channel maybe you could do a spot on Taktsang Palphug Monastery or also known as the Tigers Nest in Bhutan. My wife and I visited Bhutan last year and hiked up to this Monastery. You start at about 8000' and end up at the Monastery at about 10,000 feet. Needless to say us low landers had to stop quite a few times on the way up. Or if anything do a video on your sister channel Geographics about Bhutan. Very beautiful country with the nicest population I ever met. Thumbs up on all your videos.

"Down into......." Danny has escaped. Simon you had it coming.

Simon: What do you get when this gets put together with that and create something insane? Me: A Megaprojects video

The moving up of abu simbel temple would be interesting.

Everything else: You cannot build a train line on a mountain pass. China: Hold my rice wine.

TBM: Tunnel Boring Machine I don't know if you do machines themselves (Mega Machines) but so many of the projects involve large tunnels and the history of TBMs is mega in it's own right.

I look forward to every episode you produce and deliver; they are fascinating. Simon, I particularly enjoy your delivery, wit and honesty about the circumstances, politics and sometimes questionable honesty of the parties involved; ie. China. The honesty is refreshing. Keep up the great work and your impeccable/implacable English "humor" as it brings a smile and laugh in every video.

Another great video Simon. What about the high speed Beijing to Shaghai train ?

The video stopped so suddenly, even presenter Simon is surprised.

If they used an electric train, they would not have to use turbochargers or haul diesle fuel up into the mountains. And there would be a lot less environmental impact.

How long will it take until Simon realises we go looking for topics with loads of foreign names in them ??

Great video... specially the ending

Someone quickly get simon a phd. He has discovered that east and west china are different places.

Do one on the Karakoram Highway (KKH), the highest paved road in the world and one of the modern wonders of the world.