With the highest altitude in the world, the longest mileage on the plateau, and the hardest environment along the line, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is called "The road to heaven". The whole railway is divided into two parts to build. The Xining-Golmud section started to set up in 1958, and began to operate in 1979. The section of Golmud-Lhasa started to construct in June 29, 2001 and opened to traffic on July 1, 2006. From then on, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region ended the history of no railways.

 

Lhasa Station has been operated for 12 years since July 1, 2006, sending 14.5453 million passengers and receiving 14.946 million passengers. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has greatly shortened the distance between the plateau and the hinterland, changed the mode of transportation of Tibet, promoted the development of tourism on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, rapidly pulled the ties between Tibet and hinterland, and greatly fastened the economic development of Tibet. Statistics show that before and after the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the GDP of Tibet Autonomous Region increased from 24.88 billion yuan to 131.06 billion yuan.