Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A4

February 12, 2015

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Metro » Society

Railway woos travelers to Tibet with car schemes

By Natalie Ma | February 12, 2015, Thursday | Print Edition

FOLLOWING the popularity of its car-transport scheme to Huangshan in east China’s Anhui Province, the Shanghai Railway Bureau will open another route to Tibet in summer for locals planning a holiday in the autonomous region.

Under the scheme, people can enjoy the sights of Tibet in their own vehicle.

“We expect the Shanghai-Tibet route to be popular for people who like to drive their own cars. Surveys revealed that there was strong demand for such a scheme,” said Wang Weiguo, deputy general manager of Shanghai Railway International Travel Co Ltd.

The car-transport service to Huangshan, or Yellow Mountain, for the Spring Festival holiday was the first such service to be introduced by the Shanghai Railway Bureau which is exploring new avenues to popularize rail travel.

Customers can take the train to Xining, Qinghai Province, which takes 48 hours. Their vehicles will be transported to Xining from where they can drive all the way to Lhasa.

“Self-driving travelers won’t miss the landscape during the drive,” Wang said, adding that travelers can stay in Tibet for six days. Their cars will be ferried back to Shanghai but the company was yet to decide if the return journey would be by flight or train again.

“We will take into account factors like cost, time, as well as whether it is easy to get train tickets that time as summer is peak travel time to Tibet,” Wang said. “We plan to involve 60 cars and work out an average price of 10,000 yuan per person. I’m sure the route will be warmly welcomed by travelers.”

Wang said their main target was white-collar high-spending customers and self-driving organizations.

He said foreign travelers were also welcome though less than 5 percent travel by train.

For the trip to Huangshan during the Spring Festival, passengers will have to drive down to Beijiao freight station in Zhabei District on Chinese New Year’s Eve on February 18. They will then take the overnight train from Shanghai South Railway Station next day, and pick up the cars on arrival at Huangshan. The cost of the trip ranges from 1,180 yuan (US$190) to 1,580 yuan per car depending on the size of the vehicle. Passengers will have to pay 398 yuan extra for the sleeper coach.

Wang said 56 cars and 240 customers had signed up for the trip. He said travelers will get two nights accommodation for free.

“Traffic congestion during holiday is the main concern for me,” one of the travelers to Huangshan surnamed Yu said yesterday. “The trains can help avoid the jams on the route.”

Society


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend