At 7 o'clock in the morning, at Kunming South Railway Station, a D87 EMU full of passengers slowly pulled out of the platform and headed for Vientiane, Laos. In the carriage, tourists from all over China either took photos as a souvenir or read travel brochures, smiling. And such scenes are staged in China-Laos Railway almost every day.

"Eat rice noodles across the bridge in Kunming in the morning and taste Lao rice noodles in Vientiane in the evening." As tourists often say, with its remarkable characteristics of efficiency and convenience, China-Laos Railway is making cross-border travel as convenient as commuting across cities, and it has become a popular choice for Chinese and Lao travelers to travel across borders.

China-Laos Railway starts from Kunming, China in the north and Vientiane, Laos in the south, with a total length of 1,035 kilometers, and was opened to traffic in December 2021. In April, 2023, the train on this line started in two directions, which provided great convenience for the people of the two countries to travel across the border and for sightseeing.

At present, there are four international passenger trains running from Kunming South to Vientiane every day, which can be reached in 9 hours and 36 minutes at the earliest, and the customs clearance time at Mohan Railway Port is about 50 minutes, so the cross-border travel of "morning and evening" has become the norm.

According to the data of China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd., up to now, China-Laos Railway has operated more than 100,000 passenger trains and sent more than 73 million passengers, including over 840,000 cross-border passengers.

China-Laos Railway International Passenger Train is not only favored by China tourists, but also attracts a large number of foreign tourists. According to Xishuangbanna Culture and Tourism Bureau, in the first four months of this year, the number of tourists from Laos, Thailand and Myanmar ranked the top three in receiving overseas tourists, and the main reasons for entry were sightseeing, meeting business and visiting relatives and friends.

For Sulinda, a 32-year-old resident of Laos, the opening of cross-border trains in China-Laos Railway has turned cross-border travel from "luxury" to daily life.

"Before this railway, I had to take the shuttle bus to China, and the traffic was very inconvenient. Now every month or two, I take the China-Laos Railway train to visit Jinghong and other places in China." She also found that more and more Lao people are traveling to China now, and occasionally they meet relatives and friends.

long the China-Laos Railway, Kunming, Yuxi, Pu 'er, Xishuangbanna, Luang Prabang, Wanrong and Vientiane in Laos are connected in series, covering 560 tourist attractions, including many world natural heritages and world cultural heritages. The cultural tourism resources are abundant.

The customs clearance facilitation policy superimposes the comfortable and convenient travel advantages of the railway, making transnational play a new trend. During the "May 1" period this year, Mohan Railway Port has released more than 5,200 entry-exit personnel, among which foreign tourists have become the main force of cross-border travel.

"Convenient ticket purchasing channels, efficient customs clearance procedures and original natural scenery along the way have made the whole transnational journey full of surprises." British tourist Lena said.

In recent years, China-Laos Railway international passenger train-related tourism products have been continuously iteratively upgraded, enriching the tourist experience. The railway department has operated special tourist trains such as "Starlight Lanmei", "Traveling in Yunnan by train" and "Xiangwanghao". In May of this year, the "South of Caiyun Kunming" cross-border tourist train between China and Laos was launched, and all the berths were configured to create an immersive experience of "one shop to the end, transnational travel".

China-Laos Railway is not only a convenient travel channel, but also an active economic corridor. According to statistics, since the opening of the international passenger train for more than three years, China-Laos Railway has driven the consumption growth of tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants and other supporting industries along the line to exceed 35%, and a railway has activated an economy.

Today, China-Laos Railway is still growing and empowering. With its increasingly perfect transportation capacity allocation, continuously optimized customs clearance services and constantly upgraded travel experience, the interconnection dividend will continue to benefit thousands of households in both countries. (Looking at the new era)