Gou Shijiao works with a travel agency in the western province of Gansu. He is taking a sightseeing group made up of fourteen Japanese tourists to visit Lhasa, the capital of Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. They choose to travel by train.
"Japanese tourists mainly come for the experience of traveling on the plateau by the railway, which is known as Sky Train in Japan."
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway spans nearly two thousand kilometers from Xining, capital of Qinghai Province in Northwest China, to Lhasa, capital city of Tibet. Nearly half of the railroad is located four thousand meters above the sea level.
It took more than four years for the section between Golmud city in Qinghai and Lhasa to be completed, joining the section between Xining and Golmud, which was established 23 years ago.
Investment in the Golmud-Lhasa section totaled nearly 27 billion yuan, or more than 3 billion US dollars.
"After the Railway began operation, the demand for trips to Lhasa has caused there to be no fluctuation throughout the year. There used to be peak seasons between June and October. But for us, it's like a peak season every month. This year we will have some sixty to seventy Japanese tourist groups, each made up of around 15 people, traveling to Tibet. We charge them around 20 thousand yuan each. That's about two thousand five hundred US dollars."
According to the Development and Reform Commission of Tibet, the railway brought more than two and half million tourists last year, nearly half of the total arrivals in the region. Over 150 thousand were from overseas.
This year Tibet expects to receive three million tourists, bringing in an estimated 450 million US dollars in income to the autonomous region.
Apart from boosting the local tourism business, the railroad has been facilitating commodity trade between other parts of the country and Qinghai Province and the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Zuo Lixia works with the Qinghai Yanhu Salt Lake Group Corporation, China's largest producer of potassium chloride fertilizer, which is mainly used in agricultural production. The company produces over two million tons of this fertilizer annually.
"Before the inauguration of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the transport capacity was really stringent. Now it's more convenient for us to carry our products outside the province. But the transport capacity is still limited because the section linking Golmud and Xining, which was built in the 1980s, is undergoing renovation. After the renovation is completed, I think the transport capacity of the route will greatly improve, which certainly benefits us."
The railroad has not only triggered an increase in the quantity of goods. It has also caused a notable decrease in transportation costs, especially to the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Yang Yulin is an official with the Development and Reform Commission of Tibet.
"The railroad has an advantage over the highway in terms of the long-distance transportation of bulk commodities, such as fertilizers and cereals."
According to the Commission, the railroad has transported more than seven hundred thousand tons of cargo during the past year, saving costs of over 200 million yuan, or around 25 million US dollars.
Though railway transportation is cheaper than the highway, Basang, with the Commission, says local people have not taken full use of such an advantage.
"The container transport business on the railroad started on July the 1st. I myself have little idea about the whole process. Few people know whether it's more convenient to transport goods by train or by truck. But I'm sure the construction of the Naqu logistics center will facilitate our transportation, especially vegetables, fruits, melons, and our high-quality mineral water, to inland areas."
Construction of the logistics center in Naqu, in north Tibet, is scheduled to start this month. With a total investment of nearly 200 million US dollars, it is expected to be completed and fully functional by October next year.
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