(Written by a friend in Shanghai)
I was so sad that Argentina team lost to Germany in the World Cup yesterday. If their goalie had not been injured, if the ref hadn’t favored Germany, and if those two goals hadn’t been missed, Argentina would have won. All those excuses, however, are meaningless because they lost. I like the teams from Argentina, Brazil, and the Latin America countries. Their styles are much different from European teams. To my way of thinking, the European style is truculent while players from South America are full of grace.
People here felt that Pekerman, the coach of the Argentina team, had done a reasonable job until very late in the game when he became 100% responsible for the loss. If he hadn’t changed players then, I have NO DOUBT that Argentina would have won. What a pity! Now I hope that Brazil will win the championship.
When the World Cup began, it took up most of our spare time. Men or women, old or young, everyone talks about it. It makes us cheerful, as all the games have been very exciting. Though each game usually ends with a winner, I think there are no real losers in the World Cup. All of the 32 teams are good.
The first train to go through Tibet began operation today. It set out this morning at 9:00 a.m. from Golmud City in Qinghai province and headed for its terminal at Lhasam, capital of Tibet. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway is the first to operate in such high altitudes. It took about five years to finish building the railway, as constructions was so difficult on the high plateaus. Though the cost of the railway was very high, it is meaningful for the development of Tibet.
The trains have sealed, oxygenated cars to cope with the thin air, and two oxygen supply systems have been installed. One is a "dispersion-mode" oxygen supply system, with oxygen distributed to the air in the railway car through the air-conditioning system. The other system is like those in airplanes. In order to protect the environment, the cars are installed with environment-friendly toilets, wastewater deposit tanks and garbage treatment facilities.
Designed for a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour, the experts have said that even when running through the highest point on the Tanggula Mountain, the speed of the train could reach 80 kilometers per hour.
It must have been very difficult to iron out all the technical details of this new service.
As the new railway is now in operation, traveling to Tibet has become much easier and relatively inexpensive. My dream of visiting Qinghai and Tibet may now come true.