20 years Qinghai-Xizang Railway transforms regional logistics

Integrated logistics

The network's impact on logistics is visible in both passenger travel and bulk freight data.

For Sun Yanqing, a 44-year-old Tibetan tourist from the rugged Yushu prefecture in Qinghai, Lhasa has long carried personal meaning. He recalled his first trip to Lhasa around 2000, which required an arduous 24-hour overland journey by road from Golmud. This year, he completed the trip via a direct train from Xining with his family.

"When I was young, we always heard how good Lhasa was and wanted to come," Sun said. "After coming once, I wanted to come again. Every time I come, it is different."

Further north along the line in Amdo county — a high-altitude zone in Nagchu city near the Qinghai-Xizang border — 74-year-old resident Kelsang Tsering said that the railroad has completely altered local trade. For regional merchants, a supply trip to Lhasa to buy or sell wholesale goods once consumed up to a week by road; via the rail line, traders routinely complete orders and return within 48 hours.

After the railway opened, he also saw more visitors come to Tsona Lake and the Tangula Mountains.

Annual inbound and outbound freight volume to and from Xizang rose from 360,000 tons in 2006 to 8.31 million tons by the end of last year, according to Lu Jianbin, an official with the Xizang Development and Reform Commission.

"Compared with road transport, railway freight has cut costs by about 60 percent and improved efficiency by nearly three times," Lu said. "That has helped move daily necessities, vegetables, fruit and consumer goods onto the plateau, while carrying local agricultural, pastoral and specialty products to wider markets."