The Tanggu La, Tangla Pass, or Tanggu Pass (; bo, གདང་ལ) is a wide mountain pass in

Southwest China Southwest China () is a region in the south of the People's Republic of China. Geography Southwest China is a rugged and mountainous region, transitioning between the Tibetan Plateau to the west and the Chinese coastal hills (东南丘陵) and ...

over in

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

, which utilized by both the

Qinghai–Tibet Highway China National Highway 109 connects Beijing with Lhasa. It runs westwards from Beijing via Datong, Yinchuan and Xining to Golmud before turning southwest to Lhasa. The portion of the highway from Xining to Lhasa is known as the Qinghai-Tibet Hig ...

and Qinghai–Tibet Railway to cross the

Tanggula Mountains The Tanggula (Chinese language, Chinese: , pinyin, p ''Tánggǔlāshān'', or , pinyin, p ''Tánggǔlāshānmài''), Tangla, Tanglha, or Dangla Mountains (Standard Tibetan, Tibetan: , Wylie transliteration, w ''Gdang La'' ...

. These mountains on the

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the T ...

separate the

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of ...

from the

Qinghai province Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

, and also form part of the watershed separating the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flow ...

to the north from a zone of

endorheic basin An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into la ...

s with internal drainage to the south. Pingo in Tibet near Tanggula pass

The

reaches its highest elevation of in the Tanggu Pass at . On August 24, 2005,

rail track A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleeper ...

for the Qinghai–Tibet Railway was completed to the WNW of the highway, reaching at . The Tanggula railway station 1 km from this summit is the world's highest at , higher than that of

Ticlio Ticlio (or Anticona) is a mountain pass and the highest point (4,818 m or 15,807 ft) of the Central Highway of Peru (km 120), located in the Andes Mountains in the Chicla District, Huarochirí Province, Department of Lima. It used to be a railway ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

Xinhua News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

(August 24, 2005)
New height of world's railway born in Tibet
Retrieved August 25, 2005. The Qinghai–Tibet railway connects the provincial capitals of

Xining Xining (; ), alternatively known as Sining, is the capital of Qinghai province in western China and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. The city was a commercial hub along the Northern Silk Road's Hexi Corridor for over 2000 years, and ...

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhas ...

. The -long section from

Golmud Golmud, also known by various other romanizations, is a county-level city in the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province, China. It is now the second-largest city in Qinghai and the third largest in the Tibetan Pl ...

was opened on July 1, 2006. The rail cars are equipped with personal oxygen supplies to prevent

altitude sickness Altitude sickness, the mildest form being acute mountain sickness (AMS), is the harmful effect of high altitude, caused by rapid exposure to low amounts of oxygen at high elevation. People can respond to high altitude in different ways. Sympt ...

Climate

References

External links

* (Published before construction of railway.) * (Published before construction of railway. Highway pass elevation given as 5,149 m.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanggula Pass Mountain passes of Tibet Mountain passes of China Tibetan Plateau Amdo