A luxury tourist train is set to debut next year on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway that opened in July, a high-ranking official of Qinghai Province has said.

 

The train, the first of its kind on the railway, will be operated by the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company in cooperation with foreign tourist agencies, said the official who declined to be named.

 

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company is based in Xining, capital of Qinghai in China's remote northwest.

 

The official said the luxury train will carry the world's most advanced equipment and will rival the star-rated hotels for convenience and comfort. As well, the train will apply advanced management methods.

 

She also disclosed that Qinghai may end its history without an international portal entry in 2007. At that time, overseas tourists will be able to reach Qinghai directly from abroad and take the luxury train to visit the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

 

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the first to link Tibet Autonomous Region to the rest of China, opened on July 1.

 

Tibet has received more than 2.25 million visitors in the first 10 months of the year, an increase of 31.8 percent from a year earlier, the regional tourism bureau reported in the most recent statistics.

 

(Shanghai Daily December 21, 2006)