The Beijing to Lhasa express makes its way across the valley ...

The Beijing to Lhasa express makes its way across the valley close to the town of Naqu in Tibet, China Thursday July 6, 2006. China says the newly opened 1,142-kilometer (710-mile) stretch of rail, linking the ancient Tibetan capital of Lhasa to a station that had been a final stop on China's vast rail network, is an unparalleled engineering marvel. Andrew Fischer, an economics researcher at the London School of Economics, said tourism could be expected to increase somewhat but that not enough money was going to Tibetan education. The imbalance could undermine the region's growth prospects, he said.