Recently, the lifting arm of the cargo yard at Vientiane South Station was lifted and lowered, and cold chain containers with bilingual Chinese and old logos were slowly lifted onto the return train. The first train from Moding to Vientiane five years ago on a winter day has truly embedded this once landlocked country into the heart of the Pan Asian Railway network - Laos, which is growing from a geographically closed edge into a hub for land transportation in the Indochinese Peninsula.

Steel Channel Ends Land Lock Dilemma

On December 3, 2021, the China Laos Railway will be opened to traffic, and the 414km Laos section will pass through 75 tunnels and 167 bridges. The cross-border transportation cost from Vientiane to Kunming has decreased by 40% to 50%, and the customs clearance time for goods at Mohan Moding Port has been reduced from over 40 hours to less than 5 hours. Laos has connected to a modern cross-border railway network for the first time.

Economic and trade logistics activate regional hinterland

As of early 2026, the railway has sent over 70 million passengers and over 80 million tons of goods, and the cross-border cargo categories have expanded to more than 3800. Cassava starch, bananas and other Laotian agricultural products are transported directly to the hinterland of China by railway. The Vientiane Logistics Park and Tanaleng Land Port are linked to the Thai rice gauge, and transit trade has become a pillar of Laos' new economy.

Reshaping the blueprint for national development through the Pan Asian Corridor

The China Laos Railway is the first section of the central axis of the Kunming Singapore Trans Asian Railway, and the Thai standard track will extend northward to connect with Langkai. Laos is leveraging the 10th Five Year Plan to build the Modin Vientiane Economic Corridor, with plans to graduate from the list of least developed countries by 2026 and position itself as the logistics hub of the ASEAN supply chain. The Land Union strategy has turned slogan into reality.Editor/Gao Xue