【Text/Observer Network Liu Chenghui】
"Departure!"
At 4:45 p.m. on the 3rd, with the instructions of the Chinese leaders, the Chinese C3 passenger train slowly left Kunming Station, and the China-Laos Railway was officially opened!
Among the six countries of indochina, Laos is a special presence. It is surrounded by China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar, and has long been known as a "landlock country", and foreign exchanges have been blocked. But on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Laos, this history has been completely rewritten.
The total length of the China-Laos Railway is more than 1,000 kilometers, and 50 new stations have been built on the whole line, which has undergone 11 years of arduous construction. It runs from Kunming, Yunnan, China in the north to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, in the south, and is the first overseas railway to adopt Chinese standards, cooperate with China and Laos, and be directly connected to the Chinese railway network. It has created more than 110,000 jobs in Laos, and when opened to traffic, Kunming can reach Vientiane in 10 hours.
"To get rich, build roads first." It can be said that the opening and operation of the China-Laos railway has opened up a new era of railway transportation between China and Laos, profoundly changed the transportation pattern of Laos, and realized the long-cherished wish of Laos from a "land-locked country" to a "land-linked country".
On December 3, the "Hulk" in Kunming Station waited to depart (Xinhua News Agency)
Just like many Chinese-funded infrastructure projects in the past, the whistle of the China-Laos railway has made the Western media thousands of miles away operate such as "debt trap" and "big and inappropriate"; but this has not stopped the envy of Laos's neighbors, and some Thai scholars have urged the government not to miss this opportunity and connect the railway network with the China-Laos railway as soon as possible.
"We are not only building a railway, it also represents the standard of 'Made in China' and is the inheritance of Sino-Laotian friendship." Wang Gengjie, a China-Laos railway contractor and chairman of China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd., said.
Ruth Banomyon, a professor at Hosei University in Thailand, said bluntly that the opening of the China-Laos railway is only part of China's transportation blueprint, and China's high-speed railway construction in Southeast Asia will continue to move forward.
"This behemoth has started to move, and they're not going to stop."
From "Land Locked Country" to "Land Alliance Country"
The entire territory of Laos is about 236,800 square kilometers, which is similar to the area of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. As early as last year, Guangxi's high-speed rail operating mileage exceeded 2,000 kilometers, but what about Laos?
3.5 km – that's all the railway mileage in Laos before it opened to traffic. The special geographical location and backward transportation seriously restrict the economic development of Laos.
Today, the opening of the China-Laos Railway not only ends the history of The Railway in Pu'er and Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China, but also opens up the external interconnection of Laos, which has greatly reversed the dilemma of the "land lock country".
(Picture from Science and Technology Daily, courtesy of China Railway Second Hospital)
More than 400 kilometers of the China-Laos Railway, more than 1,000 kilometers of the china-Laos railway, pass through 75 tunnels and 167 bridges, and stop at 10 passenger stations. The travel time from Vientiane to the China-Laos border will be shortened from 2 days to 3 hours, and even kunming can achieve the dawn and night, bringing great convenience to the people of China and Laos and the people along the route. During the construction process, the project created more than 110,000 jobs in Laos and helped villagers along the way build nearly 2,000 kilometers of roads and canals.
A World Bank report last month noted that the Lao economy fell to its lowest level in 30 years due to the impact of the epidemic. The report believes that the new railway will promote tourism, freight and agriculture in Laos. "This is a major investment with the potential to stimulate the Lao economy and enable the country to take advantage of its geographical advantages," said Somba Suti, an infrastructure expert at the World Bank. ”
As a strategic docking project between China's "Belt and Road" initiative and Laos' transformation of "landlocked country" into "land alliance country", the China-Laos railway has become a major strategic cooperation project personally decided and promoted by the top leaders of the two countries.
In May 2010, the Chinese coordination team of the China-Laos railway project was received by the top leader of Laos during a visit to Laos. Xie Yi, a member of the Chinese coordination group of the China-Laos railway project, said, "For four consecutive days, the heads of relevant departments between China and Laos, and even the deputy prime minister of Laos, worked together to and from Vientiane, Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang, Muang Sai to Moding for the preliminary survey of the railway route. ”
After many inspections and negotiations, the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding on railway cooperation. On December 2, 2015, the groundbreaking ceremony of the China-Laos Railway Project was held in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. The leaders of China and Laos jointly attended the groundbreaking ceremony.
Laos People's Daily and Lao National Television reported the grand opening of the China-Laos Railway in a conspicuous position
"Inspired by China's 'connectivity' proposal, Laos put forward the strategic idea of changing a 'landlocked country' into a 'landlocked country'. With the preparation of the Laos-China railway and the continuous advancement of the 'Belt and Road', Laos has elevated this idea to a national strategy, turning the disadvantages of landlocked countries into geographical advantages, so that the inaccessible Laos can become a hub connecting neighboring countries through interconnection, especially an important node for the interconnection between China and the ASEAN region." Niratanamani, vice minister of the Lao Ministry of Public Works and Transport and head of the Lao side of the China-Laos Joint Working Group on the China-Laos Railway Project, said in an interview with a Chinese reporter in Vientiane.
Crossing mountains and rivers, building bridges and tunnels, Chinese wisdom
"The China-Laos Railway is about to enter the operation period from the construction period, announcing that Laos has entered a new era of railway transportation, and the Lao people have ushered in a new era of transportation reform." In October, Laos Minister of Public Works and Transport Rong Shawar, who attended the delivery ceremony of the Lancang EMU, said.
Since the start of the construction of the Kunyuxian section in May 2010, this railway full of expectations of the people of China and Laos has gone through 11 years of construction.
The China-Laos Railway crosses numerous mountains and water systems, and the geological structure along the line is complex. There are 167 tunnels on the whole line, with a total length of more than 590 kilometers, accounting for 63% of the total length of the whole line, and the construction task is heavy. There are 93 tunnels in China's domestic section of more than 500 kilometers, the bridge-tunnel ratio is as high as 87%, 15 tunnels are more than 10 kilometers, and the weak surrounding rock accounts for 87%, which is extremely difficult to build.
Workers work near the Friendship Tunnel in September (Xinhua)
Located on the border between China and Laos, the Friendship Tunnel is the only cross-border tunnel of the China-Laos Railway, its northern end is located in the Mohan Port in Yunnan, China, and the southern end is located in the Moding Port in Laos, the local salt content of the tunnel is as high as 80%, and the corrosiveness of the tunnel structure is large, which is rare at home and abroad.
In order to overcome this rare geological problem, the construction unit has invited experts in tunnels, geology, materials and other aspects to discuss and determine the design scheme of "grouting and blocking, all-inclusive waterproofing, circular multi-layer structure, and strengthening material corrosion prevention". In the end, after 16 months of hard work, the construction party overcame the problem of the world of high erosion of rock salt.
China-Laos Railway Yuanjiang Special Bridge (Xinhua News Agency)
On the China-Laos Railway, there is also such a magnificent bridge: the red steel truss beam flying on the gray pier, communicating the mountains on both sides, which is the Yuanjiang Special Bridge located in Yuanjiang County, Yuxi City.
The total length of the bridge is more than 832 meters, of which the highest pier No. 3 is 154 meters high, equivalent to the height of a 54-story building, which is the tallest pier of similar railway bridge in the world and also brings great challenges to the construction party. In order to reduce the center of gravity of the structure and reduce the seismic force of the bridge, the project department of the Fourth Bureau of China Railway innovated the construction method, on the top of the two reinforced concrete hollow piers, through the beams in an "X" shaped steel structure, horizontal connection, under the premise of ensuring that the load-bearing standards, to achieve the effect of reducing the weight of the piers by up to 30%.
Western media smear, but neighboring countries "admire"
As with many infrastructure projects implemented by Chinese-funded enterprises, some Western media have sent their own "worries" about the opening of the China-Laos railway on time.
Before the railway officially opened for operation, the Associated Press (AP) said in a report that the railway connects foreign markets with poor areas of southwest China, but exposes Laos to "mountain of debt risks"; in addition to speculating about the problem of "debt default", Agence France-Presse (AFP) also compared the China-Laos railway to a "white elephant", saying that it may become "infrastructure with large investment but no role", expressing concern about "long-term feasibility" There are even US media claims that this will make Laos more and more economically dependent on China, making Laos completely bound by China's economy and politics.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that the China-Laos railway and the debt problem are linked together
The Western media thousands of miles away are idle, but neighboring countries just away are very moved.
Burin Adulwattana, chief economist at Bangkok Bank, said the China-Laos rail project had the opportunity to become a "game changer" for the economy. "I don't think China is trying to put Laos in a debt trap, it's not a Trojan horse strategy, it's going to be a win-win situation in my opinion."
The Thai media has also made no secret of its envy. On the eve of the opening of the China-Laos railway, Bangkok Post, one of the three major English newspapers in Thailand, published a report on the 1st, calling on the Thai government to speed up the construction of a railway network to connect with the China-Laos railway, which will bring new opportunities for economic growth in the three countries.
The Thai Post: The government should speed up the construction of railways and seamlessly connect with the China-Laos railway
The Bangkok Post gave a very positive view of the economic and trade impact that the railway could bring. The report quoted the World Bank report as saying that the China-Laos railway will reduce the cost of transporting goods per ton from Vientiane to Kunming by 40% to 50%, and the cost of transport along the line in Laos will also be reduced by 20% to 40%.
In addition to reducing costs, the railway will also become a "gold absorbing stone" to attract more investment from China and other countries for Laos, especially in agriculture, animal husbandry and mining. Some manufacturing industries may also land in laos along the route, so that more Laos-made goods can be exported to China. In addition, the China-Laos railway can also promote the development of tourism in Laos, bringing a large number of Chinese tourists. Before the pandemic, Laos attracted about 800,000 to 1 million Chinese tourists a year, and with the opening of the railway, this number is expected to increase by 40% to 50%.
In the face of such a huge economic dividend, how to integrate into it has become a topic of discussion in the Thai media. Danucha Pichayanan, secretary general of Thailand's National Council for Economic and Social Development (NESDC), said the government should push for a tripartite agreement between Thailand, China and Laos to allow Thailand's logistics system to be seamlessly connected to the China-Laos railway, or risk missing out on development opportunities.
"If we neglect to speed up the agreement with China and Laos, Thailand may miss the opportunity to promote trade, investment and tourism." Pichayanan said, "To achieve better seamless docking with the China-Laos railway, the economic development between the three countries will usher in new opportunities." ”
Today, the China-Laos railway will not only change the status quo of Laos's "landlocked country", but also make China's ties with the countries of the Indochina Peninsula closer, and the interconnection of countries in the region will usher in new historical opportunities.
"The opening of the China-Laos railway is only part of China's transportation blueprint, and China's high-speed railway construction in Southeast Asia will continue to move forward." Ruth Banomyon, a professor at Hosei University in Thailand, said, "This behemoth has started to move, and they're not going to stop." ”
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.