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China opens Qinghai-Tibet Railway with first train setting off to Tibet
www.chinanews.cn 2006-07-01 17:15:25
(Source: Xinhua)
GOLMUD, July 1 - China on Saturday opened the world's most elevated
railway with the first pair of passenger trains traveling across the
"roof of the world".
Two trains set off at Golmud and Lhasa, the two start-up points of the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway that is dubbed an "engineering marvel" that has
linked Tibet with the rest of China for the first time.
A passenger train coded "Qing 1" pulled out from the Golmud station at
11:05 a.m., carrying about 600 passengers including role models of
builders of the railway, representatives from the Chinese government,
journalists from official media organizations including Xinhua News
Agency and CCTV, in addition to ordinary passengers who bought their own
tickets.
Plates inscribed with the words of "Eight Honors and Eight Disgraces",
standards set by President Hu Jintao to boost socialist morality, were
hung in the cars of the train, which is scheduled to arrive in Lhasa at
midnight.
Before the train left, Hu made a keynote speech at a launching ceremony
of the railway, and cut the red ribbon for the opening of the railway.
The opening to traffic of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, Hu said, is another
magnificent accomplishment we have achieved in our socialist
modernization drive. Construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railroad is a
long-cherished dream of generations of the Chinese people.
"The project is not only a magnificent feat in China's history of railway
construction, but is also a great miracle of the world's railroad
history," he told an audience of 2,600 on a square in front of the Golmud
railway station.
Some 1,142 kilometers away, Tibet's regional capital Lhasa saw off a
train bound for Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, at
11:12 a.m.. The train, coded "Tibet 2", carries about 700 passengers in
16 compartments and is expected to arrive in Lanzhou in 30 hours.
Norbu, a 28-year-old Tibetan farmer from Gonggar, left home before
daybreak to join the celebrations at Lhasa railway station and to catch a
glimpse of the train. "I'll board a train myself sometime to visit the
inland areas."
Xie Yuke from Qinghai provincial railway administration, 35, a Han
Chinese, is piloting the train's maiden trip on the plateau. Among the
passengers are Tibetan herdsmen, farmers, retired governmental officials,
builders of the railway and journalists.
Trains traveling across the roof of the world, with extra oxygen pumped
into the cabins to prevent passengers from suffering altitude sickness,
will traverse a mountain pass sitting 5,072 meters above sea level as it
rises up to the Tibetan plateau, and will drive through the Hoh Xil,
China's largest area of uninhabited land.
The cars were installed with environment-friendly toilets, wastewater
deposit tank and garbage treatment facilities to protect environment
along the railroad.
All the Chinese characters that appear on the electronic screen in each
railway car have been translated into Tibetan and English.
The Qinghai-Tibet railway is 1,956 kilometers long, with 960 km of the
track located 4,000 meters above the sea level and the highest point at
5,072 meters. The project is dubbed an "engineering marvel" because
people used to think the perennial ice and slush along the route could
never support tracks and trains.
The railway is projected to help double tourism revenues by 2010 and
reduce transport costs for goods by 75 percent in Tibet, officials said.
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��Construction of Qinghai-Tibet railway does not destroy local
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