This Day, That Year

An item from China Daily showed a ceremony to mark the completion of construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region, on Oct 15, 2005.

Hailed as a landmark project in the government’s plans to develop China’s western regions, the railway involved total investment of

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

28.5 billion yuan ($4 billion). It is the world’s highest and longest plateau railroad and also the first to connect Tibet with the rest of China.

Since the service started in July 2006, the 1,956-kilometer railway linking Xining, Qinghai province, and Lhasa has brought big differences to the lives of people in Tibet, boosting the development of

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tourism, commerce and the service sector.

The railway brings millions of visitors from home and abroad to the region every year.

Official statistics show that Tibet’s GDP surged from 25 billion yuan in 2005 to 131 billion yuan last year.

Following on, the SichuanTibet Railway is expected to be completed in 2025.

With investment of 270 billion yuan, the 1,838-km track will connect Chengdu, Sichuan province, and Lhasa, and cut the journey time to about 13 hours — it takes about three days to drive between the cities.

When he presided over the third meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs on Wednesday, President Xi Jinping stressed the need to advance the planning and building of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway.

He added that the project is a major part of the top leadership’s plans to build a better Tibet.