On a wetland near Nagqu in the Tibet Autonomous Region, groups of black-necked cranes and yellow ducks leisurely comb the lush green grass in hope of finding something to eat.

　　The stretch of artificial marsh is a haven which would otherwise have been lost if protection measures were not taken when locating a new station for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest railroad.

　　The Qinghai-Tibet railway from Gol-mud in Qinghai Province to Lhasa, capital of Tibet, which is under construction, runs 1,142 kilometers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, dubbed the "roof of the world," and passes through the Guslu Wetland.

　　The artificial marsh is the world's first in highly cold areas. Its success should be of great significance in the protection and restoration of the plateau ecology, declared Cefan, a Party official at the Headquarters for Construction of Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

　　Li Shaoliang, another senior official with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Headquarters, said measures had been taken to ensure that environmental protection goes hand in hand with the plateau railroad construction, even though their implementation drives up costs remarkably.

　　Many major rivers in China and Southeast Asia originate in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. It is also the location of the origin and differentiation of numerous mountainous biological species.

　　Gulu Wetland is 4,500 meters above sea level and has an area of 15 square kilometers. It is a land of water and lush grass in the prairie of northern Tibet. In rainy summer days in the past, local herdsmen built fences around the wetland in order to preserve the grass for use during bad weather in winter.

　　However, designs for the Qinghai-Tibet railway included a train stop inside the wetland. Builders used bridges to let the railroad pass through the Gulu Wetland and other similar wetlands in order to limit loss of wetland resources.

　　With the Gulu Wetland, the location of a new station would mean a loss of a part of the turf, which aroused grave concern among the local government and Tibetan herders.

　　A detailed plan regarding the construction of the new train stop required relocation of the turf to an arid land 8km away from the Gulu Wetland. But experts feared the turf might die out without water.

　　After many rounds of investigations, meetings and consultations, the railway headquarters gave up the original plan of relocating the turf far away to make way for construction of the new train stop, which began in 2003.

　　Instead they decided to build an artificial marsh environment on a stretch of land with sparse vegetation along the edge of the Gulu Wetland by diverting water from the plateau wetland first and then replanting the turf dug from the location of the new train stop.

　　After two years, 98 percent of the grass in the artificial marsh has survived. Making the artificial marsh, covering 80,000 square meters, cost 1.1 million yuan (US$132,530), according to Li.

　　"I think that was worth the price as the Gulu Wetland, the world's highest, has been well preserved. We have achieved another miracle in the building of the Qinghai-Tibetan rail line, which itself is also a miracle by many standards," he added.

　　(Xinhua)