Opinion | China-Laos railway bullet train: A brand product of BRI brings festival joy, friendship and a bright future
By Augustus K. Yeung
The 1,035-kilometer China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of the Belt and Road Initiative, began operating in December 2021. It has turned Laos from a landlocked country into a land-linked hub in the Indo-China Peninsula.
International passengers who want to explore Laos, the landlocked country, can now exploit this opportunity.
What's more, it's now China's Spring Festival – a jovial time when international travelers can immerse themselves in the joy of ethnic cultures. If you are worried about not being able to book seat ticks, here's the good news.
More seats for international passengers are being offered on the bullet train operating on the China-Laos Railway to meet the strong demand for travel between the two nations as the Spring Festival approaches next month, the lines' operator, China Railway Kunming Group, reassuringly said last weekend.
Since Friday, the first day of China's Spring Festival travel rush, the train has added 50 seats – for a total of 350 – for cross-border travelers between Kunming, the capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province, and Vientiane, capital of Laos.
The once-a-day train takes about 9 hours and 30 minutes to travel between the two cities, departing Kunming at 8 am and arriving at Vientiane at about 4:30 pm.
Note: China's Spring Festival falls on Feb 10 this year. This year's Spring Festival travel rush started on Friday and will end on March 5. The national railway network expects to see 480 million passenger trips during the 40-day period.
According to the Kunming railway company, there is a strong demand for cross-border travel along the China-Laos Railway during the travel rush.
Enters Vannaphone Khamphilom, a Lao student – who studies at Kunming University took the ride from the Yunnan capital to Vientiane for winter vacation this month.
"The train is always busy," she said, adding that her Chinese friends asked her to buy train tickets for them during Spring Festival.
"There is a surge demand during the holiday, and the tickets are hard to get," she said.
She said she prefers traveling by train to flying. Why?
"Since the international train service opened, I stopped taking the plane. On the train, I can talk to different people, Lao and Chinese," said Khamphilom, whose family owns a travel company. She said such trips are a great opportunity to gather travel information for her mother.
This year's Spring Festival travel rush is the first since the China-Laos Railway began offering international passenger service in April last year.
Railway employees along the route are well prepared for the "big test" of the year.
Train conductor Yi Bofeng ensures that arrival cards are issued in Chinese, English and Laos to passengers on the train so they can fill them out before arriving at the border cities where passengers must clear immigration and customs.
She helps passengers complete the cards in advance to shorten clearance times and make the trip more efficient.
Although she can speak four languages – Mandarin, English, Laos, the Dai dialect – Yi said she was initially nervous when foreign travelers would ask her for help, but now she is more confident.
"To offer better service to international passengers, we have received tailored training in Lao and English. I also practice my language skills to show my professionalism as a conductor on the international route," she said.
Yi said she and colleagues are well prepared to offer high-quality service during the Spring Festival travel rush to more passengers.
The line's international passenger service has experienced a gradual increase in demand since its operation began. This month, the occupancy rate of the international passenger train has already reached 93.1%.
Because of the winter, the warm and pleasant climates in places such Vientiane and Luang Prabang in Laos, as well as Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture and Pu'er (tea) in Yunan, has been favored by a large number of tourists from China and Southeast Asian countries.
Wang Lijuan, general manager of the Kunming Merry International Travel Service, an international tourism company, said: "Since the opening of the international service, travelers, particularly from northern Thailand, can take the railway to China. In the past, they had to travel to Bangkok to make a transfer before taking the plane to China.
She noted that since the adoption of the visa-free policy between China and Thailand, more inquiries are being made about traveling to China by train.
According to China Railway Kunming Group, the international service has so far handled more than 125,000 passenger trips from 75 countries and regions. Most of the passengers are from China, Laos, Thailand and Singapore.
The 1035-kilometer China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of the Belt and Road Initiative, began operation in December 2021. It has turned Laos from a landlocked country into a land-linked hub in the Indo-China Peninsula. (Source: China Daily)
Lao is well-known to be the smallest and poorest country in the ASEAN bloc. And it is landlocked. But now, thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, the bullet train is connecting the two "friend-shoring" countries. And more in ASEAN.
Now travelers can take the railway to China from northern Thailand, whereas in the past they had to travel to Bangkok, make a transfer before taking the plane to China.
Also, since the adoption of the visa-free policy between China and Thailand, more inquiries are being make about traveling to China by bullet train.
With this cross-country connectivity, Laotians can afford a university education like lucky Vannaphone Khamphilom, the Lao student – who is happy to be enrolled in the Kunming University, and to be able to make friends with her Chinese classmates.
Imagine. Like the Chinese students studying in the West, Laos will boast an army of "knowledge workers" – ready to reconstruct a new nation, bringing science, technology and wealth to the people. That is China's trajectory, lifting millions of its people out of abject poverty.
Three cheers to the BRI, Lao's future is bright!
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com
Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:
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