The first passenger train from southwest China's Chongqing?to Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, began its 3,654-km
journey on Sunday.
The train, with 14 passenger cars, left Chongqing Railway
Station at 7:20?PM and is expected to arrive in Lhasa at
6:28?PM on Tuesday. It is the first train between the two
cities to run on the Qinghai-Tibet railway, which went into
operation on Saturday.
The train will stop at stations of major cities such as Xi'an,
Lanzhou and Xining, capital cities of northwest China's Shaanxi,
Gansu and Qinghai provinces.
Another train carrying around 600 passengers from Golmud,
northwest China's Qinghai Province, arrived at Lhasa Railway
Station at 00:31 a.m. on Sunday, marking the end of a maiden train
run on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway stretches 1,956 km from Xining to
Lhasa. Some 960 km of its tracks are located 4,000 meters above sea
level and the highest point is 5,072 meters, at least 200 meters
higher than the Peruvian railway in the Andes, which was formerly
the world's most elevated track.
Meanwhile, the first train from the Chinese capital Beijing,
carrying some 800 passengers, started its 4,060-km journey at
9:30?PM Saturday from Beijing West Railway Station and will
arrive in Lhasa at 8:58?PM on Monday.
(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2006)
