Passengers from Shanghai and Guangzhou will be able to travel
directly to Lhasa by train starting next month.
From October 1, a train will leave Shanghai every two days,
arriving in the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region just over 50
hours later.
The Guangzhou-Lhasa service will start October 2, also every two
days, taking approximately 57 hours.
So far, the railway has been running smoothly since it opened on
July 1st.
"All in all, the past two months have been a good beginning for
us," said Wang Yongping, Ministry of Railways spokesman.
Official statistics showed trains have carried nearly 450,000
passengers and shipped nearly 100,000 tons of cargo in and out of
Tibet by yesterday.
The cargos sent to Tibet include food, coal, living necessities
and building materials. Cargos leaving Tibet are mainly ores,
including chrome, boron and irons. Volume is expected to hit
200,000 tons in total this year.
The ministry estimated that the railway would carry 75 per cent
of the total 2.8 million tons of cargo in and out of Tibet by the
year 2010.
The confidence comes from the fact that the current
transportation cost by rail is far lower than that by road.
Wang believed that the Qinghai-Tibet Railway would lower the
prices of building materials like cement and living
necessities.
It will also boost the development of pillar industries on the
plateau such as tourism, the spokesman said.
"People's income will increase and their living standards will
improve," Wang said.
(China Daily September 19, 2006)