Pan Baoguo, a 20-year-old auto salesman, rode a bicycle surmounting the Tanggula Mountain Pass of 5,231-meter above the sea level on Tuesday, a part of his journey to Tibet.

Pan from the northwest China's Xi'an City started his bicycle journey to Tibet after having got a leave of 20 days. "I can feel that I am near my dream, which has lingered so many years in my mind," he told.

Not only Pan, more people have chosen to fulfill the dream of journey to Tibet -- "the world's ridge," which brought more income to the China's autonomous region.

Statistics from the regional tourism bureau show that more than one million tourists came to Tibet in the January-August period, bringing together 1.1 billion yuan (about US$137.5 million) income, up 30 percent over the same period of last year.

The bureau expects more than 200,000 tourists in the October 1-7 period, the National Day holiday, also called the "golden week" for tourism, and more than 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million) of income.

(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2005)