First Train to Reach Lhasa on July 1
Almost all of the 20,000 hotel beds in Lhasa, Tibet, are gone, booked by eager tourists who are planning to take advantage of the soon-to-be-available rail service and travel to the mysterious city atop the roof of the world.
According to Qinghai-Tibet Rail Corporation, the company that constructed and operates the new rail line, a total of four passenger train routes to Lhasa have been planned, which respectively depart from Beijing, Chengdu, Xining, and Shanghai (Guangzhou). The first three trains run daily, while the fourth one run every other day, alternating between services of Shanghai-Tibet and Guangzhou-Tibet. The first train of these trains, coming from Xining, will arrive in Lhasa on July 1; others will follow after July 5. There will be a trial-run period before the launching of regular services.
It will be a twelve-hour train ride from Golmud in Qinghai Province to Lhasa, Tibet. Passengers will travel through two major mountain ranges (Kunlun and Tangula), cross the upper stream of the Yangtze River, traverse over the vast Tibetan Plateau before arriving in Lhasa. It is not clear yet how much a train ride to Lhasa will cost; there have been no official announcements on this particular point, although according to some sources a Guangzhou-Tibet ticket would cost a traveler about 2,000 yuan.
Lhasa Railway Station, the construction of which was not completed until most recently, is 3,600 meters (11,811 feet) above sea-level.
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