Tibetans wait in Lhasa on Sunday to welcome a delegation from the central government led by Vice-President Xi JInping. [Photo/China Daily]

Pilgrimage was also made easy by the "road to heaven."

Chodron, a 74-year-old Tibetan woman, took the train to visit the hometown of the 10th Panchen Lama in Qinghai.

"I have long wished to go there but I'm too old to endure a tiring journey," she said. "The train is fast and comfortable."

Lozang has been studying in the Kumbum Monastery in Xining, capital of Qinghai, for more than 10 years. He is now planning a journey to Lhasa.

"I want to see the Potala Palace and the temples," said the monk.

"Lhasa is a holy city in the hearts of our Tibetans, and I want to exchange what I have learned in Kumbum with monks there."

In five years, the railway has transported more than 41 million passengers and 180 million tonnes of cargo.

"Last year, 42 percent of the tourists traveled by train, a sharp rise from 26 percent reported in 2006," said Wang Songping, Tibet's deputy tourism official.

An extension of the railway from Lhasa to Xigaze, Tibet's second largest city, began last year and will be completed before the end of 2015.

Tibet will start building another extension of the plateau railway, from Lhasa to Nyingchi, in the next five years, according to the region's plan for economic and social development in the 2011-2015 period.

STILL A LONG WAY TO GO

Apart from the roads and railways, the region has opened five airports, supporting 22 domestic and international air services, according to the white paper. Two other airports are to be constructed.

"A modern transportation network has been basically formed in Tibet,"  said Zhao Shijun, head of the transportation department of Tibet.

However, transportation is still backward in Tibet. With a size almost as large as South Africa, the landlocked plateau region has just one railway and one expressway.

Ngawang, a teenager from the Xigaze, has never traveled outside the prefecture. His hometown is Tingri County, from where world's highest peak Qomolangma reaches into the sky.

Like others from there, the boy is thin but strong, whose work every day is to carry baggage for the mountain climbers.

"Tourists, some of whom are foreigners, told me what was it like outside Xigaze, but I could hardly imagine," he said.

He dreamed of taking a train one day.  "I want to go to Lhasa, and may be farther."

Students wait in Lhasa on Sunday to welcome a delegation from the central government led by Vice-President Xi JInping. [Photo/Xinhua]