Workers started laying tracks on Saturday for a 1,213-kilometer railway linking the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region with neighboring Qinghai province.

The railway, which will connect Korla in Xinjiang and Golmud in Qinghai, is the third rail artery linking the region with neighboring provinces, and the first direct rail link between Xinjiang and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Golmud is a major city on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which connects Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region, with Xining, the capital of Qinghai. The new line will offer a much shorter connection between Lhasa and Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang.