Work began on the rail line from Chengdu, capital of southwest Sichuan Province to Ya'an, a city in the province on Saturday.

The 42-km Chengdu-Ya'an section is an important part of the Sichuan-Tibet railway, and will have a journey time of about eight hours from Chengdu to Lhasa, capitals of Sichuan the Tibet .

Transport is a bottleneck for tourism in Tibet and currently, there is no direct railway service between the two cities. After completion, the Sichuan-Tibet railway will connect with the Qinghai-Tibet railway.

Editor:Claire Wang