The first passenger train from China's capital, Beijing, arrived in Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region Monday night.

 

The train, carrying some 800 passengers, arrived in the Lhasa Railway Station at 8:55 p.m. Monday. It started its 4,060-km journey at 9:30 p.m. Saturday from the Beijing West Station, and passed major cities such as Shijiazhuang, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Xining.

 

The train arrived in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province at 6 p.m. Sunday and began its run on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway that went into operation Saturday.

 

The 1,956-km-long Qinghai-Tibet railway stretches from Xining to Lhasa. It is the world's highest and longest plateau railroad and also the first railway to connect Tibet with the rest of China.

 

The 814-km section from Xining to Golmud, Qinghai, began operations in 1984. Construction on the Golmud-Lhasa section started on June 29, 2001.

 

The first train from Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, arrived in Lhasa at 6:28 p.m. Monday after a 40-hour journey.

 

A train carrying about 600 passengers directly from Golmud arrived at the Lhasa Railway Station at 00:31 a.m. on Sunday.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2006)