China on Tuesday added a new passenger train service to Lhasa from Guangzhou, capital of southern China's Guangdong Province, one of the longest passenger train services in the country.

It takes travelers 57 hours and 21 minutes to cover the 4,980-kilometer distance from Guangzhou to Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The basic coach ticket, called a hard seat sells for 451 yuan (US$56) from Guangzhou to Lhasa, while the price for hard sleeper or bunk, costs 896 yuan (US$112), and the price for a shared compartment or soft sleeper is 1,434 yuan (US$179).

The express train left Guangzhou at 10:29 a.m. on Monday and is expected to arrive at Lhasa at 19:50 p.m. on Wednesday.

From Oct. 5, there will be one express train from Lhasa to Guangzhou every other day. The train will leave Lhasa at 8:32 a.m. and arrives in Guangzhou at 7:37 p.m. the third day.

China opened the 4,373-km Shanghai-Lhasa passenger train service on Sunday, and the 4,064-km Beijing-Lhasa service on July 1 this year.

By Friday, the 1,956-km Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest railway, carried 380,500 passengers to Lhasa since entering service on July 1, said Sun Yongfu, director of construction for the plateau railway.

The Qinghai-Tibet railway, which starts from Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, and ends in Lhasa, is the first railway ever to go to Tibet.
Before the plateau railway began service, people reached Tibet only via air or highway.

(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2006)