China's central government has invested 2 billion yuan (US$242 million) into making the Qinghai-Tibet Railway a world-class, environmentally friendly railway.

Lu Chunfang, secretary of the Party committee of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company, says, "The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has the greatest government investment in environmental protection of any railway in the country. The 2 billion yuan spent on environmental conservation along the railway accounts for 8 percent of the total investment in construction. We intend to build a green corridor across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau."

Transplanting turf is a big part of the railway's construction, costing about 200 million yuan (US$24.1 million). Zhang Hailiang, chief of construction headquarters for the China Railway No. 15 Bureau says, "We have transplanted 270,000 cubic meters of turf in Damxung County and dispatched special personnel to care for it. The transplanted turf grows well every summer."

In Qucai Village, Damxung County, 76-year-old villager Cuomu says, "This used to be wasteland. After the railway builders came, they planted grass here. Now, our cattle and sheep sometimes come here to eat grass."

At the construction site of the Mugequte Bridge in Nagqu, green, grassy banks line the clear river. Tang Huabin, deputy director of the railway construction headquarters environmental protection department, says they carefully collected a layer of soil together with the grass, and then built a fence to separate the construction site proper from the transplantation area. So far, he says, all the transplanted turf has survived.

For all its apparently ruggedness, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is extremely fragile. An earth pit dug here in the 1950s remains bare today.

In order to protect the pure water in Cona Lake -- "Holy Lake" -- the China Railway No. 19 Bureau set up a cordon prevent the builders from approaching the lake and keep industrial and residential waste water from running into it.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, June 18, 2004)