China will soon start construction of the first fiber optic cable linking its colony of Tibet to China. The Xinhua news agency says the 18,000-mile cable will run across the Qinghai-Tibet plateau from Lanzhou, capital of western Gansu province, to Lhasa, capital of Tibet, via Xining in western Qinghai province. The cable will be designed and built by the China International Telecommunications Construction Corp under the Ministry of Post & Telecommunications. Telephone links between Tibet and the rest of China are currently routed via satellite and microwave.
