At present, among the 34 provinces, cities and districts in China, including Taiwan Province Province, Tibet, which accounts for one eighth of the country's total area, is the only place without railways.
As early as the founding of New China, Mao Zedong and other first-generation central leaders put the construction of the railway into Tibet on the agenda. Starting from 1956, the Ministry of Railways began to make preliminary planning for the railway entering Tibet. 1In May, 1974, the whole line of Xining-Golmud section of Qinghai-Tibet Railway (hereinafter referred to as "Xige section") started construction, and 1984 was completed in May and handed over to lanzhou railway administration for operation. This is the first stage of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
Due to various reasons such as the scientific and technological level and economic strength at that time, the second phase of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway-Golmud-Lhasa section (referred to as "Jiela section") did not continue to be built. However, design exploration and engineering test never stopped.
On February 8 this year, the State Council approved the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The second phase of Qinghai-Tibet Railway starts from Golmud in the east and ends in Lhasa in the west, with a total length of118km. Qinghai-Tibet Railway is the plateau railway with the highest altitude and the longest route in the world. There are 965 kilometers at an altitude of 4000 meters, and the highest point is Tanggula Pass, 5072 meters.
Besides the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, there are three railways in the planning, namely, Gansu-Tibet Railway, Yunnan-Tibet Railway and sichuan-tibet railway. Through comparison and demonstration, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has unique advantages in railway length, total length and density of line, bridge and tunnel, construction period and construction conditions. The total construction period of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is only six years (the other three lines are about 30 years or even longer), and the investment is also the least.
An important purpose of this project is to develop tourism resources in Tibet and promote local economic development. Tibet's tourism revenue accounts for more than 5% of the region's total revenue. From 1999, the number of tourists in Tibet reached 450,000, and it is expected to reach1130,000 by 20 10. However, due to traffic restrictions, it is very expensive for travel agencies to organize tours to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. For transportation alone, the round-trip air ticket from Beijing to Lhasa will cost more than 4,000 yuan, plus other expenses. If a person wants to join a group to travel to Tibet, the cost is often higher than that of outbound travel. After the railway is opened, it will be very convenient to travel to Tibet. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway will be built into a safe, fast, comfortable and all-weather express passage according to the principles of high speed (train speed 140 km/h), large section (one station every 50 km) and few maintenance personnel.