China's National Tourism Administration and other departments are working on the "tourism development plan along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway" to build a golden tourism route around the "Roof of the world" in western China.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway starts from Xining, capital city of Qinghai Province, and stretches westward to reach Lhasa in Tibet Autonomous Region.

Sites along the railroad abound with tourism resources, including natural landscapes like the Qinghai Lake, the Brahmaputra River canyon and headstreams of the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Lantsang, as well as the grand mix of religious, artistic and architectural wonders such as the Potala Palace, Tashilhunpo Monastery and Ta'er Monastery, and also various species of precious protected wide animals.

The 1,956-kilometer Qinghai-Tibet Railway is the world's highest and longest railway on the plateau. After a five-year construction, it was completed in October, 2005, which put the history when Tibet had no railways to an end.

Considering this is a mysterious tourist sightseeing railroad which numerous travelers worldwide are thirsty for visiting, the project built a total of 45 stations during the construction. Sightseeing platforms were set up in many stations, and the train will take a break at three to five stops for tourists' sightseeing.

As the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is about to open to traffic on July 1, some famous resorts in Tibet and Qinghai are actively engaged in making preparations to welcome the soaring number of tourists after the railroad starts operation.

Preliminary estimate manifests that this year, Tibet is expected to receive more than 2.5 million tourists. In the next two to three years, travelers to Qinghai will likely rise 20% to 30% in number, with tourism revenue to double.

(Chinanews.cn June 28, 2006)