June 27 - Kyodo: China’s new Qinghai - Tibet railway, set to become the world’s highest railway when it opens on Saturday, will charge a minimum of 389 yuan (US$48.65) for a 48-hour trip linking Beijing with Lhasa, state-run media said on Tuesday.

A basic bunk will cost 813 yuan and a higher-class bunk will cost 1,262 yuan for the 4,064-kilometer route, according to the China Daily.

The train will leave Beijing at 9:30 p.m. and arrive in Lhasa at around 9 p.m. two days later, the daily said.

Most of the 1,110-kilometer stretch of the Qinghai-Tibet railway’s new track is at least 4,000 meters above sea level, with the highest point at 5,072 meters.

That makes the railway the world’s highest, at least 200 meters higher than the Peruvian railway in the Andes, formerly the world’s highest altitude railway, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The railway, touted by Beijing as a key to developing Tibet, has also been criticized by Tibetan exiles as a potential trigger for the influx of Han Chinese into the region.