This is the highest railway on Earth, over 5000 meters in places. It is quite luxurious, and the carriages are specially designed to help passengers avoid Altitude sickness. Contrary to popular belief, the carriages are not pressurized. It is possible to open the train windows en-route and the train stops at many high altitude stations with no pressurization/de-pressurization before the train doors open. The air is oxygen-enriched by outlets in the carriages. If that is not enough, you can plug a nasal catheter into an outlet for a more concentrated dose. Few passengers require these, but they are available if you do.

The train different classes of travel including soft sleeper (4 berths in one compartment), hard sleeper (6 berths in one compartment) and hard seat (standard railway seating). In each carriage information about the journey is displayed on scrolling LED displays. This contains much information in Chinese and in English it is possible to find out the current speed, time and date, altitude and next station information.

Each carriage has an attendant who is responsible for the boarding of that carriage and the passengers within it. There is also a restaurant car serving food and drink and frequent trolley services for food and other essentials throughout the train. Every train also carries a doctor and nurse.