Photo shows the staff loading mineral water onto the train.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the world's "Third Pole", nurtures abundant and high-quality natural mineral water resources thanks to its unique geographical environment. The water sources here primarily originate from glacier meltwater, which, after being filtered through layers of rock formations, contain a variety of minerals and trace elements beneficial to human health, and are crowned with a good reputation for its crisp and sweet taste. Leveraging this exceptional resource endowment, Qinghai Province and Xizang Autonomous Region have cultivated numerous renowned mineral water brands. In the past, due to transportation constraints, it was difficult to achieve large-scale outward transportation of the mineral water.

In recent years, with the upgrading of the Qinghai-Xizang Railway, as well as the operation of the Lhasa-Xigaze, Lhasa-Nyingchi, and Lanzhou-Xinjiang railways, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has become more closely connected with the rest of the country, providing convenient transportation conditions for the outward shipment of local natural mineral water. Since China Railway Qinghai-Tibet Group Co., Ltd. launched a special mineral water transportation project in 2013, it has cumulatively transported over 1.5 million tons of mineral water, with the highest annual transportation volume reaching 256,000 tons. This is equivalent to 22.81 million boxes of water from the plateau entering millions of households through the railway network.

"We have developed exclusive transportation plans for each water enterprise to ensure that mineral water is transported safely, quickly, and efficiently to various parts of the country," said Dorje, deputy director of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Logistics Center, which has established a joint marketing team with China Railway Express to open a "green channel" for mineral water transportation, utilizing the 95306 integrated intelligent freight service platform to achieve full tracking and accelerated processing, effectively saving transportation time and costs for enterprises.

Currently, the natural mineral water industry on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has formed a relatively complete production and sales chain with the assistance of the railway, and its products cover major consumer markets in North China, East China, and South China. It is expected that the transportation volume of mineral water will exceed 300,000 tons by 2025, injecting stronger momentum into the development of plateau-specific industries.

Reporter: Zhang Xuefang, Zhou Yuexiang, Feng Yanyan, Chimed Drolkar

Translator: Zhi Xinghua

Review: Hu Rongguo, Dong Xiuli