GOLMUD/LHASA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China on Saturday opened the world's most elevated railway with the first pair of passenger trains traveling across the "roof of the world".

    Two trains set off at Golmud and Lhasa, the two start-up points of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway that is dubbed an "engineering marvel" and has linked Tibet with the rest of China for the first time.

    A passenger train coded "Qing 1" pulled out from the Golmud station at 11:05 a.m. and passed the tunnel of the Kunlun Mountains, a legendary range that was widely seen as insurmountable, at around 12:43 p.m., breaking American train traveler Paul Theroux's prophesy that the Kunlun Range was "a guarantee that the railway will never get to Lhasa".

    The train has driven into the Hoh Xil, the country's largest area of uninhabited land and home to Tibetan antelopes and wild horses.

    The passengers, around 600, are expecting to catch a glimpse of the critically-endangered animals. Officials with the Hoh Xil nature reserve said the animals had got used to the railway before its opening.

    A miniature statue of a Tibetan antelope stands on every table in the dining car, reminding the diners to care for wildlife.

    Plates inscribed with the words of "Eight Honors and Eight Disgraces", standards set by President Hu Jintao to boost socialist morality, were hung in the cars of the train, which is scheduled to arrive in Lhasa at midnight.

    Before the train left, Hu made a keynote speech at a launching ceremony of the railway.

    The opening to traffic of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, Hu said, is another magnificent accomplishment we have achieved in our socialist modernization drive. Construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railroad is a long-cherished dream of generations of the Chinese people.

    "The project is not only a magnificent feat in China's history of railway construction, but is also a great miracle of the world's railroad history," he told an audience of 2,600 on a square in front of the Golmud railway station.

    The President then cut the ribbon for the launching of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. After his speech, a train carrying officials and model workers on the project set out from Golmud forLhasa where it was due to arrive on Saturday night.

    Some 1,142 kilometers away, Tibet's regional capital Lhasa saw off another train bound for Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, at 11:12 a.m.. The train, coded "Tibet 2", carried about 700 passengers in 16 compartments and was expected to arrive in Lanzhou in 30 hours.

    Cering, a lama from the Johkang Monastery, is a distinguished passenger to take the maiden train ride out of Tibet. "I hope we'll have the time to pay a pilgrim to Ta'er Monastery in Qinghai."

    Ta'er Monastery is one of the largest monasteries of the Yellow Sect of Tibetan Buddhism in memory of Tzongkaba (1357-1419), the founder of the Yellow Sect.

    Cering's colleague Lhunzhub said the train is "clean and nice", but kept wiping sweat off his forehead. "I'm excited," he said. "This is my first train trip."

    Xie Yuke from Qinghai provincial railway administration, 35, a Han Chinese, is piloting the train's maiden trip on the plateau. Among the passengers are Tibetan herdsmen, farmers, retired governmental officials, builders of the railway and journalists.

    Trains traveling across the roof of the world, with extra oxygen pumped into the cabins to prevent passengers from suffering altitude sickness, will traverse a mountain pass sitting 5,072 meters above sea level as it rises up to the Tibetan plateau, and will drive through the Hoh Xil, China's largest area of uninhabited land.

    The cars were installed with environment-friendly toilets, wastewater deposit tank and garbage treatment facilities to protect environment along the railroad.

    All the Chinese characters that appear on the electronic screen in each railway car have been translated into Tibetan and English.

    The Qinghai-Tibet railway is 1,956 kilometers long, with 960 km of the track located 4,000 meters above sea level and the highest point at 5,072 meters. The project is dubbed an "engineering marvel" because people used to think the perennial ice and slush along the route could never support tracks and trains.

    The railway is projected to help double tourism revenues by 2010 and reduce transport costs for goods by 75 percent in Tibet, officials said. Enditem