Chinese construction workers have completed the track-laying on 287.25 km of the 1,956-km-long Qinghai-Tibet railway route, with the highest elevation of any rail line around the world, by early Sunday morning.

An official with Qinghai-Tibet railway project headquarters of the China Railways No.1 Bureau said they began to lay tracks on the 36.02-km section of Fenghuo Mountain, which is 5,000 meters above the sea level and has the worst climate conditions.

Qinghai-Tibet railway, reaching 5,072 meters above sea level at the dangerous and precipitous Tanggula Range, links Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, with Lhasa, capitalcity of Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China.

Rail sections covered by frigid, frozen earth, for instance, extend over 550 km, posing a challenge for railway construction. The entire railway line is scheduled for completion in 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2003)