Lanqing railway was built as the first step of an ambitious plan set by the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

 to connect Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

 with the rest of China by railway. LanQing railway, designed in 1956 and built from May 1958 to September 1959, runs 188 Kilometers long, connecting Lanzhou

Lanzhou

Lanzhou is the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China. A prefecture-level city, it is a key regional transportation hub, allowing areas further west to maintain railroad connections to the eastern half of the country....

, the capital city of Gansu

Gansu

' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...

 province, and Xining

Xining

Xining is the capital of Qinghai province, People's Republic of China, and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. It has 2,208,708 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 1,198,304 live in the built up area made of 4 urban districts.-History:...

, the capital city of Qinghai

Qinghai

Qinghai ; Oirat Mongolian: ; ; Salar:) is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake...

 province. It is currently the only railway that connects Qinghai-Tibet region with the rest of China.

The second step of the original plan is the Qingzang railway

Qingzang railway

The Qinghai–Xizang railway, Qingzang railway, or Qinghai–Tibet railway , is a high-elevation railway that connects Xining, Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, in People's Republic of China....

, a 1956-kilometer railroad that starts from Xining, first runs west bound to the city of Golmud, also in Qinghai province, and then runs south bound towards Tibet and finally ends in Lhasa

Lhasa

Lhasa is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China and the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau, after Xining. At an altitude of , Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world...

. This plan proved to be very challenging as the Qinghai-Tibet plateau is some of the highest terrain in the world. The segment between Xining and Golmud

Golmud

Golmud , sometimes transliterated as Ge'ermu or Geermu, is a county-level city in Qinghai Province, Western China. Administrated by Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, it is the second largest city in Qinghai and the third largest in the Tibetan Plateau . The population is now about...

, measured 814 kilometers long, was completed in 1979, and became operational in 1984. However, the final segment of the QingZang railway, from Golmud to Lhasa, was put on hold for almost two decades due to the high elevation and complex terrain of the region. This project was revived again in 2001, and was finally completed in October 2005. After signalling work and track testing it was inaugurated on 1 July 2006.

The easternmost section of new Lanxin High-Speed Railway

Lanxin High-Speed Railway

The Lanzhou–Urumqi High-Speed Railway, also known as Lanxin Second Railway, is a high-speed rail under construction in northwestern China. It will connect Lanzhou in Gansu Province and Ürümqi in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region....

(construction of which started in 2009), from Lanzhou to Xining, will run roughly parallel to the Lanqing Railway.