China-Laos Railway
The China-Laos Railway links Kunming in the north and Vientiane in the south. Its construction commenced on December 25, 2016, and was completed and opened to traffic on December 3, 2021. The 1,035-kilometer-long railway is a flagship project of pragmatic cooperation between China and Laos, as well as an important docking project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Laos' strategy to convert itself from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub.
On December 3, China-Laos Railway was officially opened to traffic on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Laos. Green trains carrying friendship, happiness and opportunities linked the Chinese dream and the Lao dream closely.
At 16:50, the first passenger train C3 set off along the track No.1 of Kunming Station. "We innovated the construction method and drilled through the Anding Tunnel, the longest tunnel on the China-Laos Railway, which is very rare in the history of tunnel construction in China," said Li Bin, a builder of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC), proudly on the first train of the China-Laos Railway.
China-Laos Railway runs more than 1,000 kilometers from the Chinese city of Kunming in the north to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, in the south. It is the first international railway that was built with Chinese investment by Chinese technical standards and equipment, directly connecting China's railway network since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed.
The China-Laos Railway runs through many mountains and water systems, where feature complex geological structures, such as a high geothermy, high geostress, high seismic intensity, active neotectonic movement, active geothermal water environment, active external dynamic geological conditions and active superficial slope reconstruction process. Accordingly, its construction was confronted with huge difficulties. As the national-level infrastructure construction team, 14 units under CRCC were responsible for construction and supervision of the China-Laos Railway, undertook the construction of 12 station buildings, including Vientiane Station, Luang Prabang Station and Wild Asian Elephant Valley Station, opened multiple high-difficulty tunnels, including Xinhuashan Tunnel, the longest high-temperature tunnel in China, Wanggangshan Tunnel, the most complex geological tunnel in southwest Yunnan, and Taida Village Tunnel known as a southwest geological museum, and built Ganlanba Bridge, the longest bridge in the domestic section of the China-Laos Railway, setting many records in construction.
As the "brain center" of the Boten-Vientiane section of the China-Laos Railway, CRCC's construction team set up the "standardized communication base station" and the "signal standard station". Based on Chinese high-speed rail standards, it integrated signal, communication and information systems and built Vientiane control center into a "communication signal construction process model project". In addition, CRCC also brought Chinese railway standard process to Laos to build an "exclusive" component factory for the Boten-Vientiane section of the China-Laos Railway. Since the construction started in 2016, CRCC's builders set a new benchmark under the Belt and Road Initiative with Chinese process, Chinese solutions and Chinese standards.
During the construction process, CRCC adhered to the ecological environmental protection concept throughout the whole process of railway construction, integrated engineering construction and ecological civilization construction, and built bridges, tunnels and stations in harmony with natural landscape, so as to promote environmental protection work with high standards, and make the railway a beautiful ecological corridor.
The opening of the China-Laos Railway ushered in a new era of railway transportation in Laos, profoundly changed the transportation pattern of Laos and realized Laos' strategy to convert itself from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub. The railway will greatly facilitate people's travel, promote the development of tourism, agriculture, water conservancy and other resources and the urbanization in areas along the line, and give an impetus to the development of Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone, China-Laos Mohan-Boten Economic Cooperation Zone and other economic parks. It is of great significance to promote economic, social and cultural cooperation and exchanges between China and Laos, and accelerate the construction of China-Laos Economic Corridor and a community with a shared future between the two sides.
