China-Laos Railway: the “Golden Grand Corridor” Across Mountains and Rivers

Since its opening, the ChinaLaos Railway has continuously driven the upgrading of economic and trade cooperation, tourism, and industrial collaboration between China and Laos. On June 5, Xi Jinping met with Lao leader Thongloun, who was visiting China, in Beijing, and emphasized the need to advance development along the railway and implement “onestop, two inspections” customs clearance, so as to promote the upgrading of cooperation in the ChinaLaos Economic Corridor. This railway, stretching 1,035 kilometers from Kunming in northern China to Vientiane in southern Laos, is regarded as an important project linking China’s Belt and Road Initiative with Laos’s strategy to become a “landlinked country.” Its completion has not only shortened transportation times within Laos and between Laos and other countries, but also changed the longstanding lack of rail service in Yunnan’s border areas. Over the past four years since it opened to traffic, the freight capacity and service reach of the ChinaLaos Railway have continued to expand. In the first quarter of 2026, the value of imports and exports transported by rail reached 6.81 billion yuan, up 62.7% year on year; shipments of fruit and “the new three” products increased significantly, and the freight network now covers 19 countries and regions. At the same time, international passenger trains have also boosted tourism and consumption along the route, becoming a transportation and exchange channel connecting the people of the two countries.