Tracklaying for a 834.5-kilometre-long section of the Qinghai-Tibet railway line, one of　the highest in the world, was　completed towards the end of July. This is the first stage of　the project to build a railway　line linking Qinghai Province in the northwest with Tibet in the southwest.

This section which stretches　from Xining, provincial capital of Qinghai, to Golmud, a new　town in the western part of the province; winds mostly through　areas 3,000 metres above sea level. Along this section there was a 350-kilometre stretch of sand and gravel where no water is obtainable; another stretch of the line, 32 kilometres long, is built across salt marshes. In addition there is a four-kilometre-long tunnel through a　mountain 3,700 metres above　sea level.

The building of the line began in 1974, with the railway　engineering corps of the People's Liberation Army as the main force. Later, they were joined by more than 1,000 scientific and technical personnel from all over the country, who helped solve technical problems caused by the high altitude, difficult terrain and　treacherous weather.

The line passes through the rich agricultural area in the　eastern part of Qinghai Province and the vast expanse of grassland lying to the north of the Qinghai Lake before it　crosses the Qaidam Basin which is about 200,000 square kilometres in area. The completion of the line will facilitate the development of agriculture and animal husbandry in the locality and, in particular, the exploration of natural resources in the basin.

Qaidam means "salt marshes" in Mongolian. Geologists estimate that the salt reserve there is over 50,000 million tons, in addition to rich deposits of various kinds 'of high-grade metals and non-metal resources.

New cities and towns, new factories, stores, schools　and　hospitals are rising one after　another along the line. Large quantities of building materials, machines, equipment and daily　necessities are pouring in from　all parts of the country, while salt,, animal products, agricultural and sideline products are being shipped out.

At the time of liberation Golmud was a pastureland of the Kazakh people, overgrown　with reeds and tamarisk. Since the opening to traffic of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway in 1954,the place has gradually developed into a fairly large settlement. The building of a railway has brought prosperity to the　area. Now Golmud is a city with a population of 110,000 and a hub linking Qinghai and Gansu Provinces with the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and　the Tibet Autonomous Region.

(This article appears on page 6, No. 33, 1979)