A daily average of 4,400 tourists have traveled to Tibet by train since July 1, when the history-making Qinghai-Tibet Railway went into operation, said a local tourism official.

Tibet had a total of 301,000 stay-over tourists in the first 20 days of the month, a rise of 50 percent on the same period last year, announced Zhanuo, deputy head of Tibet Autonomous Regional Tourism Bureau, at a news briefing.

A closer look at the figures shows that 172,000 tourists, or 57 percent of the total, flew in, and 29 percent or 88,000 entered the plateau region by rail. The other 41,000 traveled to Tibet by road.

According to the official, the plateau region handled 591,200 tourists and raked in 516 million yuan (about US$64.5 million) from January to June, up 9.2 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively.

The Qinghai-Tibet railway, the world's highest, runs 1,956 kilometers from Qinghai's provincial capital Xining to Lhasa in Tibet. It is likely to be extended to Xigaze, about 280 km southwest of Lhasa, sometime before 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2006)