K2188 took the world’s highest railway from Xining Station to welcome the first day of Spring Festival travel rush.

　　Xinhua News Agency reporters Li Yaguang, Wang Jun and Li Linhai.

　　At 7 o’clock, the Xining Railway Station was still not bright, and there was a long queue in front of the entrance. Passengers with suitcases and hurried steps kept coming and going in the square. On the 13th, the plateau railway with the highest altitude and longest mileage in the world — — Qinghai-Tibet Railway welcomes the first day of Spring Festival travel rush in 2017.

　　The Qundeng Dorje family from gande county, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, waited in line for nearly 30 minutes at the ticket window early, and they successfully bought five berth tickets for Lhasa that day. Qundeng Dorje’s mother is 68 years old, suffering from rheumatism all the year round, and her legs and feet are inconvenient. The volunteers next to him moved to the wheelchair and communicated in Tibetan, guiding their family to quickly enter the station from the green channel.

　　Zhang Qiang, deputy stationmaster of Xining Railway Station, said that this year Spring Festival travel rush was the earliest Spring Festival travel rush in five years. In order to ensure the safe and smooth travel of passengers, Xining Station deployed its strength to provide guidance and assistance services at ticket gates, entrance, waiting halls and even the square in front of the station a week ago, and many of them are proficient in Tibetan and Chinese. Xining Station has also set up a "service post for migrant workers to return home safely", and arranged special personnel to collect information on returning home for migrant workers and provide more help in purchasing tickets and guiding rides.

　　At 7: 30, a large number of passengers have gathered in the waiting hall of Lhasa Railway Station. The reporter went to the "Colorful Hada Passenger Service Center" at the entrance of Lhasa Railway Station, where emergency medicine boxes, health manuals for plateau travel and other items were placed in an orderly manner. In order to better cope with the altitude sickness that passengers may encounter on the way out of Tibet, the staff guides passengers to queue up to fill out a "health registration card" printed in Tibetan, English and Chinese, which includes information such as name, train number and health status.

　　The Qinghai-Tibet Railway starts from Xining, Qinghai in the east and ends in Lhasa, Tibet in the west, with a total length of 1,956 kilometers. It is the only passage for all places along the way to go out of Tibet by railway. Wang Tao, a staff member of Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company, told the reporter that during the 40-day period in Spring Festival travel rush this year, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is expected to send 1.3 million passengers, including 160,000 passengers at Lhasa Station and 680,000 passengers at Xining Station, with a daily average of 32,500 passengers, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%.

　　According to reports, this year’s Qinghai-Tibet Railway’s pre-Spring Festival travel rush student flow, work flow and family visit flow are highly overlapping, and the peak of passenger flow is formed when it enters Spring Festival travel rush. It is estimated that the highest day for passengers to send before the holiday is January 24, sending 42,000 passengers; After the holiday, the passenger flow is relatively flat. The peak days of passenger flow are February 3 and 13, and it is estimated that 45,000 passengers and 40,000 passengers will be sent respectively.

　　This year, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway ushered in the 11th Spring Festival travel rush after its opening to traffic. In the past 10 years, this railway has completed a number of capacity expansion and transformation projects, and its capacity has been increasing continuously. During the period of Spring Festival travel rush, the number of passengers sent by Lhasa Station alone increased from 62,604 in 2007 to 168,654 in 2016, an increase of 2.7 times.

　　"In the past, it was hard to get a ticket, and Spring Festival travel rush’s going home was like ‘ Fight ’ . Even if you buy a ticket, you have to sweat from entering the station to getting on the bus. " Hsing-Chuan Huang, a Shanghainese who travels back and forth between Xining and Lhasa and the mainland all the year round and does Tibetan ornaments business, told reporters that there are more and more channels for purchasing tickets and collecting tickets, and the staff’s services are more detailed; The two railway stations in Lhasa and Xining have been expanded and rebuilt, and all kinds of modern equipment are available. The whole waiting process is relaxed, warm and orderly.

　　At 8: 35, the sun just rose, accompanied by a long whistle, the first starting train on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau that day — — K2188 slowly drove out of Xining station.