Back to the Future--From Tibet by train

My friend, Dr Lin, pointed out to me that once you have been to Tibet you are faced with a choice: You must decide, Will you go there and live, or will you just let Tibet live inside you; because Tibet cannot be recreated--like a Disneyland--anywhere else. 

So we took a train 2000 miles from Tibet toward Beijing to consider this fundamental question.

(Photo: Train station at Lhasa.) 

(Photo: 4-bunk "soft sleeper.") 

(Photo: Our sleeper-mates--a brother and sister on vacation--and I speak the universal language of pictures on a Mac.) 

(Photo above: Sand barriers to protect the rail tracks in the Gobi desert.) 

(Photo above: A new burm and new rails, part of China's massive infrastructure investment, unabated during our world economic crisis, connecting the past to the future.)