Tibet's bottled water reaches eastern coast by train

HANGZHOU - A train carrying nearly 1,900 tonnes of bottled mineral water from Tibet autonomous region has reached the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang after traveling 4,500 km over five days.

The 35-carriage train, which left Lhasa, capital of Tibet, last Wednesday, arrived in Beilun Port railway station in Ningbo, Zhejiang on Monday after passing through Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan, and Anhui provinces.

A ceremony was held on Wednesday at the station to mark the success of the first cargo train between Lhasa and Ningbo.

The freight, all bottled glacier mineral water, will be distributed to places in Zhejiang and Shanghai.

Tibet, often called Asia's Water Tower, is rich in water resources. It produced over 400,000 tonnes of natural drinking water in 2015, but high transportation costs made it difficult to reach other parts of China.

The new trains will facilitate transportation of cargo from Tibet to cities to the east. There are plans to run cargo trains between Lhasa and other cities such as Beijing, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Lanzhou.