Special report: Qinghai-Tibet Railway

    GOLMUD, Qinghai, June 30 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 Chinese and foreign journalists have been busy covering everything related to the Qinghai-Tibet railway one day before the world's highest railroad is put into operation on Saturday, a local publicity official said here Friday.

    "Our office alone received more than 200 reporters who came for help in the past few days, which greatly increased our workload," said the official in the publicity department of Golmud City more than 1,100 km from Lhasa, capital of Tibet.

    "The phone calls coming from Beijing, Hong Kong and other cities also kept us busy."

    The 1,956-km railway starts from Xining, the provincial capital of Qinghai, and ends in Lhasa, where a new railway station has been ready for receiving the first passenger train expected to arrive on Saturday night.

    Journalists worldwide flooded to areas along the railway to see how the rail route runs through some geographically vulnerable areas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, including the frozen earth regions, said one official with the Ministry of Railways.

    They came for the answer of such questions as whether the railway will bring fortune to the local people and how the local eco-environment is well protected, he added.

    About 100 journalists from more than 20 Chinese and foreign media organizations came as early as mid-June to prepare for their report on the opening of the railway, according to the Golmud official.

    China's biggest two media organizations, the Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television, have both dispatched a team of more than 100 journalists and technicians to cover the event, according to the ministry, which plays a key role in making preparations for a ceremony to mark the operation of the railway. Enditem