Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region welcomed 265,800 visitors during the week-long National Day holiday, up 19.4 percent from last year, said the regional tourism bureau.

The operation of the new Qinghai-Tibet Railway has prompted a surge in the number of visitors to the region.

Tibet earned a total tourism revenue of 87 million yuan (US$11 million), up 18 percent on last year.

A total of 11,536 people, including 2,299 from overseas, visited the Potala Palace during the first six days of the vacation. The local tourism bureau limits the number of visitors to the palace to 2,300 per day.

China opened two new rail links to Tibet during the holiday, with one from the economic hub of Shanghai and the other from the southern city of Guangzhou.

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2006)