The quake was also clearly felt in the provincial capital Xining,

"We all jumped up in the middle of our morning editorial meeting," said Xinhua reporter Ma Yong based in Xining. The office is on the third floor of a four-storey building downtown.

The tremor was also felt in the industrial city Golmud --- the starting point of the world's highest railway, which goes to Tibet --- and Haixi prefecture's capital Delinha.

When the quake struck, many people ran out of buildings. "Some residents said it was the biggest tremor they felt since the 8.1-magnitude quake jolted Hol Xil in 2001", said Luo Zhenggang, an official in Golmud.

Hol Xil, a major nature reserve and habitat for the critically-endangered Tibetan antelopes, is in the Kunlun Mountain Range, near Golmud.

The Qinghai-Tibet railway seems largely unaffected by the earthquake. "Railway operation remains normal," said a company spokesman. "But we have tightened safety surveillance along the route, and equipped every train with additional mechanical engineers."

An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale hit the same region in April 2003, but did not cause casualties, and only damaged old buildings.

The China Earthquake Administration suggested Monday's earthquake would have caused limited losses.

Just six months ago, on May 12, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit southwest China's Sichuan Province, leaving more than 80,000 dead or missing. It was the deadliest and strongest tremor to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake.

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2008)