When you think of Tibet, you probably consider somewhere that is remote, mountainous and perhaps a little old-fashioned.
When you think of Sydney you probably think of a modern, first-world city with excellent infrastructure.
You may be surprised, then, to learn that while Sydney has rattling suburban trains with no high-speed links to Melbourne or Brisbane, in Tibet they have have commenced operations of the an electrified bullet train.
Preconceptions eh?
The remote Himalayan region now has 150kph service linking the Tibetan capital Lhasa with Nyingchi, a Chinese town close to the Indian border.
The 435km Lhasa-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway opens up part of the Tibet Autonomous Region for public transport for the first time, as China ramps up tourism development in the region.
The services are operated by the China National Railway Corporation (CNRG).
The Fuxing railway, China's first single-line electrified railway, will take passengers from Lhasa to Nyingchi in 3 1/2 hours.
The Lhasa-Nyingchi route connects the existing Lhasa-Shigatse Railway and the existing Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which is also an important part of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway under construction.
Tibet hasn't had much say in their own affairs for a while now. This is all China.
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