Qinghai-Tibet railway nears finish
By Hu Xiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-31 05:50

"When completed, it will be the highest and longest highland railroad in the world," Sun said.

Tenzin, a worker on the Tibet Railway Station project, said: "All of us hope that the whole line can be completed at an early date. It will only take 48 hours to travel from Lhasa to Beijing."

On the construction site, only one narrow route is available for workmen and vehicles to pass through. Tenzin said it is to protect the ecosystem along the railway.

Wetlands and the vast expanse of frozen earth are also carefully protected along the railway, according to Vice-Minister Sun.

On Monday, 200 bar-headed geese were released into the wild at the highest swamp in the world Lhalu Wetland Nature Reserve after being raised by humans for 18 months. "It is the first time in China that artificially-bred bar-headed geese have been released into the wild," said Ding Feng, a researcher with the Nida Research Base of Wild Animal Breeding in Lhasa.