On the morning of May 12th, 33 trucks loaded with disaster relief supplies departed from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, were heading towards Ba'er Qiake County in northern Nepal. This is the first time that Tibet has sent relief supplies to Nepal overland.

According to deputy director-general of the Tibet Autonomous Region Civil Affairs Office, Jiang Juan, this batch of supplies included 500 tents, 5,000 blankets, 1,000 folding beds, 50 tons of rice and 4000 boxes of mineral water. "All supplies have been subject to stringent checks to ensure there are no issues with quality", he said.

After the 8.1-magnitude earthquake jolted Nepal the Tibet local government promised to provide Nepal with six million yuan in earthquake relief supplies. From April 29th to May 2nd, Tibet had already air transported four batches of supplies worth 520,000 yuan,totalling 21.5 tons, which included 200 tents, 1,000 blankets and 1000 boxes of mineral water.

According to director of Tibet's Foreign Affairs Office of China, the northern part of Nepal that borders Tibet was severely affected. The reopening of the60-km of road on the Nepal side of Zham Port has allowed supplies to be transported to Ba'er Qiake County. As a result, the Tibet local government decided to transport relief supplies by land to Nepal.

To ensure that the supplies arrived safely, the Nepalese Consul General in Lhasa traveled with the convoy to Zham Port to coordinate the transfer.

It is understood that there will be two batches transported by land. Once the road on the Nepal side of the Gyirong Port resumes traffic, another batch will be sent to the Rasuowa area.

(One US dollar equals to about 6.2005 yuan)