Construction on the 3,345-meter Yangbajain No. 1 tunnel on the Qinghai-Tibet railway was completed Sunday in the Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China.

The tunnel is 4,264 meters above sea level, located 80 kilometers away from the regional capital Lhasa.

It is the longest tunnel built in areas with an elevation of over 4,000 meters in China,

Completion of the Yangbajain tunnel marks the completion of all the seven tunnels on the Qinghai-Tibet railway.

The 1,118-kilometer Qinghai-Tibet railway will extend from Golmud City in Qinghai Province in northwest China to Lhasa in Tibet. It will be the longest and highest railway in the world.

More than 960 kilometers, or over four-fifths of the railway, will be built at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, and over half of it will be laid on frozen earth.

According to the Headquaters of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Construction, by Oct. 11, a total of 12.3 billion yuan (US$1.49 billion) had been used in track laying on the rail route.

Construction on the railway began in June, 2001.

(Xinhua News Agency October 13, 2003)