Blooming Champa: China-Laos Railway presents a brand-new look

“Blooming Champa flowers are shining. The fragrance caresses my face in breeze.” This is an excerpt from the lyric of the song All the Way Together released by Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd for the recent launch of the Kunming-Vientiane train service for international passengers.

Cai Yang and Lancang train. (Photo by interviewee)

“Champa, commonly known as frangipani, is the national flower of Laos,” said Cai Yang, primary business manager of the general affairs department of this corporation. While introducing the Champa-related song to reporters in Vientiane, capital of Laos on Apr. 14, Cai, together with other persons in question, also briefed on the China-Laos Railway.

With government support from the two sides, Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. was established in Vientiane in August, 2016. Since then, the China-Laos railway has been built and opened as scheduled with the joint efforts from the two countries.

A total of 3,015 trains loaded with passengers have been operated on the Boten-Vientiane section of China-Laos Railway, which have transferred 2.18 million passengers by Apr. 10. In the first quarter of this year, 954 freight trains were sent on the same section, with an increase of 112.47% year-on-year.

The influence of China-Laos railway has gone beyond expectation, said Mei Guotai, a supply-chain staffer at the Tianchi Logistics under Yuntianhua Group.

In March this year, they signed a MOU on food supply chain with a well-known Lao agro-product enterprise, so that further cooperation on the industry chain and supply chain can be achieved in the future.

Tourists are taking photos at Patuxay, a famous tour spot in Laos. (Photo by Liu Ziyu/Yunnan Daily)

Bualay Phanouvong, the director of General Office of Ministry of Information & Culture and Tourism of Laos, said the operating of the international trains would bring more tourists to Laos from its neighboring countries.

And after visiting Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Oudomxay, tourists may go to Yunnan province and even other places of China. Now, many foreign enterprises have already invested in Lao tourism.

China-Laos Railway directly boosted the tourism in Northern cities of Laos, added Cai Yang. Now, Cai is trying to realize his individual worth through the corporation as a platform and is also making contribution to the development of this railway.

Liu Hong, the general manager of Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. introduced that, this corporation had been training and developing Lao talents for railway. More than 1000 Lao staff have accepted training. In this corporation, Lao staff accounts for 60% of all the staff.

Reporting by Liu Ziyu and Yang Chunmei from Yunnan Daily; trans-editing by Wang Yunya