Passengers are now able to travel between China and Laos within one day on the China-Laos Railway as the first international passenger train departed from Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province on April 13.
A bird's-eye view of a station of the China-Laos Railway [Photo provided to sasac.gov.cn]
Starting from Kunming and terminating in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, the 1,035-kilometer China-Laos Railway is the first international railway that was built to Chinese standards and is operated by both Chinese and Lao authorities.
A train operates on China-Laos Railway. [Photo provided to sasac.gov.cn]
Directly connected with China's railway network, it is a result of China's Belt and Road Initiative and a strategic project of turning Laos from a land-locked country into a land-linked country.
Stretching through regions with complicated landforms such as mountains, rivers and lakes, the China-Laos railway was extremely hard to build.
As a main force of construction of the railway, China Railway Group Limited was responsible for survey and design, electrification construction and track laying of the entire line, as well as key engineering construction.
A view of a bridge section of the China-Laos Railway [Photo provided to sasac.gov.cn]
As of April 9, the China-Laos Railway had transported a total of 13.93 million passengers and 18.38 million metric tons of goods, of which 3.59 million tons were cross-border cargo. It has played an active role in building a Laos-China community with a shared future and constructing a crucial artery between China and countries in South and Southeast Asia.
A train runs through a tunnel of the China-Laos Railway on the border of the two countries. [Photo provided to sasac.gov.cn]
(Executive editor: Xie Yunxiao)
