As a section of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, rail track has been laid to the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang in northwest China, a world heritage site to preserve the Buddhist art.

The rail connection reached Dunhuang on Monday, and is advancing by at least two km a day. Travelers will be able to get to Dunhuang by train by the end of this year.

The Mogao Grottoes, also popularly known as the Thousand Buddha Caves, was listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1987. Spreading for about 1,600 meters along a hill, frescoes were painted on the ceiling and walls of the caves.

Currently, travelers can only reach the site via a road laid on desert or by air. With a construction cost of more than 660 million yuan (US$82.5 million), the 165-km-long railway built from Anxi County to Dunhuang in northwest China's Gansu Province is connected with the world's longest plateau railroad stretching 1,956 kilometers from Qinghai's provincial capital of Xining to Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

In addition to facilitating passenger travel, the railway will promote energy exploitation in the landlocked province.

(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2005)