Sleeping on a train's hard berth from Beijing to
Tibet may cost you less than US$100 in the near future, only
one-third of a one-way air ticket at present.
The Price Department of the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC)
yesterday published a document on its website about the provisional
pricing policy of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
The document set interim prices for both passenger trains and
cargo transport between Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region and
Golmud in northwest China's
Qinghai Province, part of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
Cargo transport, which began operation yesterday, will charge
0.12 yuan (1.4 cents) per kilometer for 1 ton of cargo.
Passenger transport, scheduled to begin on July 1, will have
different pricing rules.
The luxurious tourist train's ticket price will be decided by
the market, which ensures no government interference. But the
ordinary train ticket prices are fixed.
Based on the document, Jiang Weiping, an official with the
Ministry of Railway, estimated that a hard seat ticket from Beijing
to Lhasa will be sold at 380 yuan (US$46), a hard berth ticket will
cost 776 yuan (US$93), and a soft berth ticket will charge 1,241
yuan (US$150).
With an investment of 24 billion yuan (US$2.96 billion), the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway from Xining of Qinghai Province to Lhasa, a
distance of 1,965 kilometers, is by far the longest plateau railway
with the highest altitude in the world.
A total of 960 kilometers of the 1,135-kilometer Golmud-Lhasa
section of the railway are at least 4,000 meters above sea level,
which was completed in October 2005.
Trains are a cheaper way to travel than airplanes. Without
discount, a one-way non-stop flight from Beijing to Lhasa costs
about 2,430 yuan (US$293).
But Jiang stressed that the prices set by the NDRC "are
just temporary."
"The exact prices will only be known after the State Council
gives a notice around July 1," he said.
The document is good news to many people who dream of traveling
to Tibet.
A report on Western China Metropolis News said 85
percent of surveyed young people in
Sichuan Province expressed their desire to take a train to
Lhasa.
"Travel agencies are also very interested in it," Sun Liqun,
manager of domestic tourist products with China International
Travel Service Head Office, told China Daily in a phone
interview.
The current price that agencies offer on travel to Tibet is
between 6,000 and 7,000 yuan (US$723 to 843).
Though not clear about how many train tickets travel agencies
can get at what price, Sun is confident the opening of the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway to traffic will "cut the present offer by at
least 2,000 yuan (US$241)."
With no complications, tourist products to Tibet by train can
appear and be promoted in the market as early as April, she
said.
By then, tourists will have four choices to reach Tibet, flying,
a luxurious tourist train, an ordinary passenger train or bus.
"Tourist products to Tibet by train are unlikely to get popular
at once, because supplies along the rail line are not abundant
now," she said. But there is no doubt that both travelers and the
Tibet Autonomous Region will benefit from the railway.
(China Daily March 2, 2006)