Riding the rails of ''progress''-Truck cover

Riding the rails of ''progress''-Truck cover A mob pushes through the main entrance to the Truck cover, clamoring to shove bags and gear onto the X-ray conveyor. The LCD display board registers trains and tracks incomprehensible when matched against a ticket whose only English is ''''Beijing-Lasa.'''' A massive neon sign promising INFORMATION beckons, where a Truck cover speaks enough English to direct me to the waiting room. More than two days will pass before another English-speaking Chinese person appears. Some mysterious paperwork -- written in Mandarin -- is required. The woman at the waiting-room entry wanders off to find an English form, then distributes it to the Truck cover to one another in the waiting room. It is a health certificate. Signing it verifies that you know that traveling above 16,000 feet onto the Tibetan plateau is rife with health risks. ''''Highly dangerous pregnant women'''' are discouraged. Pens have been known to burst, hard drives to crash. One 77-year-old man collapsed on the journey and died on the way to the Truck cover. But that was all months ago, during the train''s earliest days, right? No one on this July journey seems concerned.