Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
Created: 2006-07-14 CST, Updated: 2006-07-14 CST
THE Qinghai-Tibet Railway will help promote relations and trade between China and South Asia as well as tourism in the region, leading Nepalese figures have said.
Rajeswor Acharya, a former Nepalese ambassador to China, told Xinhua in a recent interview that China's Tibet Autonomous Region was a dreamland for tourists from all over the world and that tourist flow to Tibet will double within two or three years.
China's trade with South Asian countries including Nepal has added new opportunities, as Chinese products can be transported on the railway for less money and in less time, Acharya said.
"These opportunities will develop TAR's economy vigorously" and Nepal could also grasp the new opportunities, Acharya said.
Tourists visiting the Tibet region could be attracted to Nepal because of its proximity.
"The trans-Himalayan region and birthplace of Lord Buddha at Lumbini in Nepal could be appropriate destinations to tourists going to the Tibet region," Acharya said.
The railway service will also help promote China-Nepal relations.
"More Chinese people can come Nepal and more Nepalese people can go to China as the fare and time needed to visit have decreased," he said.
Infrastructures projects in Tibet have opened up a possibility of closer economic cooperation between China and Nepal as well as with other countries south of the Himalayas, said Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai, chairman of Nepal-China Executive Council.
The council, a non-government China-Nepal business friendship organization, has been working for bilateral tourism promotion, trade expansion and investment between the two countries for three years, Bhattarai said, adding, "The railway service has added special and new momentum in these three main mottoes of the council."
The railway will also benefit direct bus services between Lhasa and the Nepalese capital Katmandu. The bus started operations on May 1, last year.
The railway has ushered in a new era in the Himalayan region, said Upendra Gautam, general secretary of China Study Center, another Nepalese non-government friendship organization.
The impact it will make on trans-Himalayan relationships will be historic, Gautam said.
"China's Tibet is no more a remote part of the world," he said.
Chinese leaders have already declared that the railway is going to be extended further south as far as to the border areas.
China's trade with South Asian countries including Nepal has added new opportunities, as Chinese products can be transported on the railway for less money and in less time, Acharya said.
"These opportunities will develop TAR's economy vigorously" and Nepal could also grasp the new opportunities, Acharya said.
Tourists visiting the Tibet region could be attracted to Nepal because of its proximity.
"The trans-Himalayan region and birthplace of Lord Buddha at Lumbini in Nepal could be appropriate destinations to tourists going to the Tibet region," Acharya said.
The railway service will also help promote China-Nepal relations.
"More Chinese people can come Nepal and more Nepalese people can go to China as the fare and time needed to visit have decreased," he said.
Infrastructures projects in Tibet have opened up a possibility of closer economic cooperation between China and Nepal as well as with other countries south of the Himalayas, said Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai, chairman of Nepal-China Executive Council.
The council, a non-government China-Nepal business friendship organization, has been working for bilateral tourism promotion, trade expansion and investment between the two countries for three years, Bhattarai said, adding, "The railway service has added special and new momentum in these three main mottoes of the council."
The railway will also benefit direct bus services between Lhasa and the Nepalese capital Katmandu. The bus started operations on May 1, last year.
The railway has ushered in a new era in the Himalayan region, said Upendra Gautam, general secretary of China Study Center, another Nepalese non-government friendship organization.
The impact it will make on trans-Himalayan relationships will be historic, Gautam said.
"China's Tibet is no more a remote part of the world," he said.
Chinese leaders have already declared that the railway is going to be extended further south as far as to the border areas.
Xinhua
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