All aboard! Railway brings new prosperity to Tibet

LHASA – Tibetan people have celebrated the first year of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, recalling the changes brought by the rail link that connects the landlocked region to the rest of the country.

“When the rails rattle, the money comes in” was how Losang Cering, 40, of Liuwu Village, near the Lhasa railway terminal, described the railway’s benefits.

“Before, we depended on the land for a living, but my people are working in construction, running home-style hotels, and some are driving cabs. They can earn about 2,000 yuan a month now, an unimaginable sum before,” he said.

A year after its inauguration, the Xinhua news agency reports that the railway has transported 1.5 million people into Tibet, nearly half of the total tourist arrivals into the country.

The regional tourism administration says Tibet will receive more than three million tourists this year.

The 1,956-km railway, runs from Xining, capital of the northwestern Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region.