Perhaps the world's most exotic train ride, rivaling the Balkan Express and the Trans-Siberian Railway, will be China's trip from Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet, beginning in July.
It will take travelers only 48 hours by direct train trip from Beijing to Lhasa, capital of west China's Tibet Autonomous Region, as of July 1, a railway official said.
The train engines and carriages will be highly advanced; all carriages will have oxygen-supplying equipment and oxygen masks so that no one will suffer altitude sickness.
Travelers can enjoy world-class tourist sites along the newly built line during the trip, including Qinghai Lake, said Zhang Shuguang, director of the Transportation Bureau with China's Ministry of Railways.
The new railway line will be operational at the Beijing's West Railway Station from July 1, the official said. Key sections of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway were completed on October 12.
The Qinghai-Tibet section of the railway is the world's highest railway. Some 960 kilometers of the tracks were laid at 4,000 meters above sea level, with the highest parts reaching 5,072 meters.
The railway is still the world's longest plateau railroad that extends 1,956 kilometers from Qinghai's provincial capital Xining to Lhasa.
The Golmud-Lhasa section, completed on October 12, zigzags 1,142 kilometers across the Kunlun and Tanggula mountain ranges.
The Beijing-Lhasa train will run at 160 kilometers per hour on the plain, but will slow to 120 kilometers per hour when it reaches the Qinghai-Tibet section, Zhang said.
According to the official, the trains running on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway are the most advanced ones in China. All the carriages are installed with oxygen-supplying equipment and every passenger will be provided with an oxygen mask.
(Xinhua)