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 (about 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 (about 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)