Joining the high Himalayan altitudes to mainland China, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway embodies the dreams of generations of Chinese and its leaders, including Sun Yatsen, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin. In a fastly developing globalized society, high-speed rail, accessibility and travel are often easy to dismiss and take for granted. But here, Xu Jian takes a step back, and station by station, relives the political and geographical challenges encountered during the railway’s construction. It is a story not only of engineering, but of national pride, bloodshed, hardship, sacrifice, romance and sex.