The first passenger train from southwest China's Chongqing
Municipality 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 p.m. and is expected to arrive in Lhasa at 6:28
p.m. 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.
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.
(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2006)