Screenshot of CCTV News

The China-Laos Railway has reached a new milestone, with cumulative passenger train runs surpassing 100,000 since its launch on December 3, 2021, according to a statement sent to the Global Times by China Railway Kunming Group on Thursday.

As of Wednesday, the 1,035-km-long cross-border railway — the first railway of its kind in Laos and a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative — has handled 73 million passenger trips. So far, more than 840,000 tourists from more than 120 countries and regions have traveled across the border via the railway.

This "golden route," bearing the shared aspirations of the Chinese and Lao peoples, is injecting new vitality into regional economic and social development through its ever-increasing traffic capacity, the CCTV News reported.

According to the China Railway Kunming Group, the railway's cross-border passenger flow has injected great vitality into local economies, driving consumption growth of over 35 percent in scenic spots along the route, hotels, and restaurants along the route.

The landmark project, a flagship of China-Laos cooperation, links a string of renowned tourism destinations including Kunming, Xishuangbanna, Luang Prabang and Vientiane, with over 560 scenic spots, forming a key corridor for cross-border travel, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The railway has witnessed a dramatic scaling of operations during the past five years. Monthly passenger volume along the entire line surged from 600,000 trips during the initial operation period to a peak of 2.25 million, nearly a fourfold increase, according to the statement.

On the Chinese section, daily passenger train runs expanded from 8 to a maximum of 86, with daily passenger trips exceeding 90,000 at peak periods. The Lao section saw daily runs grow from 4 to 18 trains, with conventional passenger trains expanded to 10 or more carriages, and peak daily ridership reaching 12,000.

Cross-border connectivity has also deepened. To meet the growing demand for cross-border travel, international passenger train runs between Kunming and Vientiane were introduced on April 13, 2023. 

As of Wednesday, international passenger services between Kunming in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province and Vientiane, capital of Laos, have increased to four daily trains, with cross-border seating capacity rising from 250 to 420 seats per journey. Daily border crossings grew from 300 in the early days to a peak of 1,640, said the railway authority.

The fastest journey from Kunming South Station to Vientiane now takes just 9 hours and 36 minutes, while customs clearance at the Mohan railway port has been streamlined to 50 minutes, making same-day cross-border travel a routine reality.

A total of 9.27 million railway passenger trips were made on the China-Laos railway during the January-May period, up 7.5 percent from a year earlier, said the railway authority. Cross-border travelers totaled 164,000, marking a robust 35.3 percent increase year-on-year.

Beyond passenger services, the railway has become a critical artery for China-ASEAN trade. According to chinanews.com.cn, as of Monday, cross-border fruit imports transported via the China-Laos Railway this year reached 107,900 tons, up 30 percent year-on-year. Thanks to the railway, fresh produce from Southeast Asia can now reach Chinese markets in as little as three days.

The year 2026 marks the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Laos as well as the Year of China-Laos Friendship. “This railway carries the shared aspirations of the Chinese and Lao peoples," a spokesperson for China Railway Kunming Group said. "It is evolving from a transport corridor into a comprehensive economic corridor that drives regional development and deepens people-to-people bonds."

The China-Laos Railway exemplifies a new model of infrastructure-led regional integration in Southeast Asia, where connectivity investments translate directly into trade facilitation, tourism growth, and shared prosperity, said the spokesperson.


Global Times