Guangzhou will join cities including Beijing and Chengdu in offering rail services to Lhasa using the newly opened Qinghai-Tibet railway.
The Guangzhou-Lhasa service would be launched on National Day on October 1 and the one-way journey would take three days and two nights, the Southern Metropolis News reported yesterday.
The report said the Guangzhou Railways Bureau had already selected crew members for the special service and staff would be able to speak basic Tibetan and English. They would be able to adapt to high altitude on the Tibetan plateau.
Like the rail services from Beijing and Chengdu , coaches for the Guangzhou-Lhasa route will also be supplied with enriched oxygen to help passengers cope with altitude sickness. The coaches will also be furnished with showers and modern toilet fittings to minimise damage to the environment.
The report said the Guangzhou-Lhasa service would run every two days, but ticket prices had not been set.
Engineers from the Guangzhou Railways Bureau have completed a test run of the new coaches in Lhasa, and the vehicles have been sent to Qingdao in Shandong province for adjustments to the vacuum facilities used in the coaches' toilets and other compartments.