According to chief train conductor Yang Xiaomeng, during Ramadan, most Muslim passengers choose to pray in the restaurant car or vestibules.
Many carry their own “sajjada,” or prayer mat.
At 4am the next morning, as the train arrives at Tanggula, the world’s highest railway station, Ma takes his “suhur” once again and begins another long day’s fast.
Ma has never taken a plane. The furthest he has ever gone is Lhasa, capital of Tibet, three times by train.
“The railway keeps me close to my son,” he says.
|