Tsinghai-Tibetan a trunk-railway
" It is the most high-mountainous railway in the world. "
Road on a roof of the world " - Train to the roof of the world. Connects an administrative centre of Tibet - city Lhasa through ?????? and Sining with all other railway network The countries. China announced Saturday the completion of the building work of the railway line Qinghai-Tibet, which is highest of the world by its average altitude. Long of 1 956 km, it connect Xining, chief town of the province of Qinghai (south-western), in Lhasa, capital of the autonomous area of Tibet. The railwaymen posed the last rails of 25 meters at the station of Lhasa Saturday morning, marking the completion of this historical work considered as "the impossible missions". A ceremony was organized Saturday morning at the station of Lhasa to celebrate success in the construction of this railway on the high mountainous chains of some 5 000 meters and crossing a zone of 550 km long ice. Chinese president Hu Jintao spoke in praise, in a letter of congratulations, this success describing it as "un triumph without precedent" in the human history of railway construction. At the time of the ceremony, the Deputy Prime Minister Huang Ju invited the railwaymen to continue their efforts in order to carry out the operations of test next July as envisaged.
The construction of the Golmud-Lhasa section of 1 142 kilometers, which crosses the mounts Kunlun and Tanggula, took more than four years and cost 33 billion yuans (4 billion dollars American) with the participation of more than 300 000 people. The climax of the railway Qinghai-Tibet stiue with 5 072 meters of altitude, is at least 200 meters higher than the railway Péruvienne on the Andes cordillera which had been regarded as the highest railroad in the world. According to sources' of the ministry for the Railroads, after the operations of test, the railway will connect the next year Lhasa with five important Chinese cities which are Beijing, Shanghai (is), Xining (north-western), Chengdu (south-western) and Guangzhou (southern). It also will ensure 75% of the carriage of goods of the interior of the country towards Tibet, which will reduce the cost of transport and will contribute to the development of the local economy. In five years, the railway will be prolonged of Lhasa until Xigaze and Nyingchi, according to the ministry.