LHASA, Oct. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- China announced on Saturday completion of the world's highest railway, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which stretches 1,956 kilometers from Xining to Lhasa cities in western China.

    The announcement was made at a ceremony held at the Lhasa Railway Station Saturday morning to mark the country's success in making the impossible possible, by building a railway line across 5,000-meter-high mountain ranges and 550-km-long frozen belt.

    Tibet's regional capital basked in glory as merrymaking crowds of railway builders, officials and ordinary citizens hailed in Tibetan and Mandarin the completion of the railway that is soon to become a more efficient and affordable means of transportation.

    "In my younger days, I thought we would have to wait for 100 years for building a railway in my hometown," said Qamba Zoinzhu, a 58-year-old businessman in Lhasa.

    Construction of the 1,142-km-long Golmud-Lhasa section of the railway, which runs across the Kunlun and Tanggula mountain ranges, started in June 2001 and has cost 24 billion yuan (3 billion US dollars) to date.

    The highest point of the railway is 5,072 meters above sea level, at least 200 meters higher than the Peruvian railway in the Andes, which was previously the world's most elevated track. Enditem