A 75-year-old Hong Kong man died after suffering a heart attack on a train leaving Tibet last month, the first death on the world's highest railway since it opened on July 1.
The man had refused to follow medical advice that he should not board the train, which departed from Lhasa bound for Xining, said Zhang Xiqing, chief co-ordinator of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company.
'He was hospitalised in Tibet before he was to leave on the train, and doctors diagnosed that he had a heart disorder. But he insisted on being discharged and boarded the train,' Mr Zhang said.
The man died on the train on July 22. His body was cremated on the mainland and his ashes were brought back to Hong Kong, a Hong Kong Department of Health spokesman said.
The man was travelling with his wife and friends on a package tour organised by China Travel Service, the spokesman said. He had reportedly signed a document saying he would be responsible for any adverse health consequences arising from the trip.
During the first month in operation, the railway took more than 70,000 passengers to Lhasa, Mr Zhang told mainland media earlier this month. He said the Hong Kong man's case was the only fatality on the train so far.