The Qinghai-Tibet railway line has carried 272,700 passengers and 37,400 tons of freight since entering service on July 1.

About 40 percent of the passengers were tourists, 30 percent business people and the rest students, transient workers, traders and people visiting relatives in Tibet, according to Jin Shixun, director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of Development and Reform.

"The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has turned Tibet into one of the most coveted travel destinations in China," said Jin.

In July and August, Tibet played host to 913,000 domestic and overseas tourists and raked in 942 million yuan (US$117.75 million) in revenue.

Average occupancy for three-star and four-star hotels in Tibet over the past two months was 83.7 percent. Food and drink sales rose 55.7 percent from the same period last year to hit 127 million yuan (US$15.88 million).

Zhanuo, deputy director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Tourism Bureau, said that one person had died since the history-making plateau railway began operations.

The dead person was a 77-year-old Hong Kong resident who was unfit for travel in plateau regions as he had been diagnosed with pulmonary edema before reaching the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. Pulmonary edema is a swelling or accumulation of fluid in the lungs.

The Hong Kong resident fell ill and was hospitalized after arriving in Lhasa on July 28 with a tour group organized by a Hong Kong travel agency.

The old man ignored his doctor's recommendation that he take a flight out of Tibet as a health precaution. Instead he left the hospital on July 31 and boarded a train to Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, with other members of the tour group. He died on the train the next day.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2006)