Cross-border passenger train on track to boost trade, relations with Laos

Welcome development

Meanwhile, on April 13, it opened an international passenger service — a long-awaited development for people on both sides of the border. The service had not been offered before because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, passengers can travel between Kunming and Vientiane in 10 1/2 hours, including inspections at customs clearance stations at the respective borders.

According to China Railway Kunming Group, the line's international service handled 2,326 cross-border passenger trips between April 13 and 18.

As a landmark BRI infrastructure project, the railway aims to promote the movement of people and cargo between the two countries, and further play a role as a key corridor to boost communications in the Southeast Asia region, facilitating areas such as trade and logistics.

It also provides new opportunities for people in both countries, boosts economic potential and showcases how the BRI is a win-win endeavor.

"The service has not only further facilitated the flow of people and trade between China and Laos, but also presses the 'accelerator pedal' for the recovery of tourism and other industries, and injects new impetus to promote development between the two countries," said Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"The China-Laos Railway is a model project of China and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations who are working on the BRI and promoting regional economic integration."

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the BRI, and China will continue to cooperate with ASEAN members to promote the initiative and benefit 2 billion people in the region, he added.

Su Yisheng, an expert in Southeast Asian relations with the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, said: "The China-Laos Railway, especially the cross-border passenger service, makes travel between Kunming and Vientiane very convenient. Compared with spending more than 40 hours on a cross-border bus, it is much more comfortable for people to travel by train. It benefits those with travel needs between the two countries, such as students, tourists and businesspeople."

He quoted a World Bank estimate that Laos' GDP will rise by 21 percent as a result of the construction and operation of the China-Laos Railway, adding that the line will create more jobs for Laotian people.

"It is a win-win project for China and Laos, and has already benefited people on both sides," he said.

Although Laos had a 3.5-km-long railway along its border with Thailand before the opening of the China-Laos Railway, many local people see the latter as the country's first railway, and have spoken about it and are proud of it.

The railway stretches 422.4 km within Laos, linking the northern border city of Boten and Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng, popular tourism sites, with Vientiane.

"The China-Laos Railway will make Laos a bridge between China and Southeast Asian countries, and in general a link between Laos and the world," said Suanesavanh Vignaket, Laos' minister of information, culture and tourism.

Bouncier Tangsinsomyong, a 50-year-old tour guide in Vientiane, said he had longed for the international passenger service to open.

"It's such good news for us, and I am looking forward to visitors coming," he said. "We Laotians are used to living a leisurely lifestyle. We do not hurry, we take our time, but that doesn't mean we don't want development. We also want our country to be better, more convenient, like China," he said.

Not only have local people praised the service, international tourists also see it as a convenient link.

"It was fast, efficient and pleasant," said Stuart Hart, who was visiting Laos from the United Kingdom and shared his firsthand experience as a passenger on the railway. He has taken the service twice.

Hart, who lived in Shanghai for two years, said the service was as good as those he experienced in China, while Juliet and Dean O'Reilly, also from the UK, said Vientiane Railway Station is big and beautiful.