The Northwest Research Institute is based in Lanzhou, in Northwest China's Gansu Province. The institute is the only organization in the railway system that studies permafrost on the plateau.

Before this year, observation teams surveyed the tracks three times a day, even when temperatures dipped to -30 C, he said.

At present, teams still check for subsidence and deformities in the rail bed.

"There are more than 70 monitoring teams along the line who work together to inspect the rails sitting on permafrost every 15 days," he said.

The Northwest Research Institute has been gathering data about permafrost conditions on the Fenghuo Mountain for the past 45 years, providing statistics for the design and construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

"The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has many measures in place to protect the frozen ground," he said.

For example, engineers have used stone slabs to build embankments that cool without breaking up. They have also thrust steel tubes into the ground along some parts of the route to transmit heat from beneath the icy surface.

Bridges were built where the permafrost was unstable to minimize the railway's influence on the environment.

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