The grand ceremony will be held this morning in Golmud, a start-off point of the landmark railway in northwest China's Qinghai Province, to mark the railway's opening to traffic.

Hu will deliver an important speech at the ceremony to be attended by about 2,600 people from various circles, including a vice premier of the State Council, minister of railway, as well as Party chiefs of Tibet and Qinghai.

The Qinghai-Tibet railway stretches 1,956 km from Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, to Lhasa. The section of 814 km from Xining to Golmud began operation in 1984 and the Golmud-Lhasa section started construction on June 29, 2001.

The railway is the world's highest and longest plateau railroad and also the first railway connecting the Tibet Autonomous Region with the rest of China.

The first train will leave Golmud at around 11:00 am, sources said.