A $10,000 ticket to ride
- Source: Global Times
- [09:06 April 01 2011]
- Comments
Two Tibetan women take a break at the Naqu Station during a trip from Lhasa to Beijing on July 4, 2006. Photo: CFP
By Li Yanhui and Yan Shuang
The Tibet Tourism Bureau confirmed Thursday that they were researching the prospect of running a luxury train from Beijing to Lhasa that would cost $10,000 for a one-way ticket.
The tourism bureau announced plans to enhance tourism facilities and expand access to the Tibet Autonomous Region to promote it as a world tourism destination, the Tibet Daily reported Thursday.
The State will invest 1 billion yuan ($152.7 million) in Tibetan tourism during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, nearly tripling the 350 million yuan invested during the 11th Five-Year Plan.
"The luxury special train would only serve 108 tourists for a seven-day journey, and the cost would be more than $10,000," Liao Lisheng, director of the policy and regulation division of the Tibet Tourism Bureau, told the Tibet Daily. The service will be launched this year, he was reported as saying.
"Tourists can have baths on the comfortable train and host guests there. The rooms will be divided into different classes, and tourists should book their tickets in advance," he said.
Liao's statements were met with strong responses from other parties.
"It's impossible. I've received no notice from the higher-level government or the Tibetan railway department about this luxury train plan," the director of the press department of the Beijing Railway Bureau, surnamed Yang, told the Global Times Thursday.
Usually, the Beijing bureau oversees all trains departing from the capital heading to Tibet, while the Tibet department takes charge of the returning trains, but the two are supposed to communicate changes or plans to each other, according to Yang.
The Tibet Tourism Bureau confirmed the information about the luxury train, but "the program is still under research until the end of April, and details about the train's operation and service are still unclear," an anonymous bureau official said.
The Qinghai-Tibet railway opened on July 1, 2006, and that year 2.5 million people visited Tibet, up 39.5 percent over 2005. A total of 4 million went in 2007, a 60-percent increase, according to the Nanfang Daily.
However, riots in Lhasa on March 14, 2008, curbed the tourism boom, with domestic tourists not allowed back into Tibet until April 23. Foreigners were barred from entry until June 25, 2008, according to media reports.
"If I have the option of taking the train to Tibet, then I'd choose it for sure," amateur photographer Dou Zhen told the Global Times Thursday. He traveled to Tibet in 2006, by air.
"As for the luxury train, I've doubts about who it will serve," he added.
"The luxury train to Lhasa may just be a ploy to attract public attention, but there definitely is a market for it," said Yang Xiaowen with the Chinese travel website yoee.com.
