Blooming Champa: Partners paired best on China-Laos Railway

Nilawan Laleansuk (Photo by Liu Ziyu and Yang Chunmei)

It was almost noon on Apr. 15. The temperature of Vientiane, capital of Laos, already reached 40 degree centigrade. However, Nilawan Laleansuk, a freight watcher at Vientiane South Railway Station was still working carefully.

Graduated from Yunnan Normal University, Nilawan has been working in the Vientiane station for more than a year. She said the sound development of her career resulted from her teachers’ help in China.

Ma Jing (Photo by Liu Ziyu and Yang Chunmei)

Born in 1990s, Ma Jing is a girl from Qujing city, Yunnan province. She is one of Nilawan’s teachers and in charge of freight on the Boten-Vientiane section of China-Laos Railway.

She came to Laos for preparation work of the operation of the railway, and provided training courses to Lao staff. Faced with many difficulties in her work, Ma keeps on trying new ways. To help Lao staff meet the requirements of their positions quickly, she invited Lao staff who is good at Chinese to be her assistant.

"The goods departed from Vientiane are mainly iron ore, cassava flour, fertilizer, rubber and fruits, while the arrivals are mostly fertilizer, chemicals, daily necessities, electrical and mechanical products,” said Ma Jing, adding April has seen rising volumes of the transported fruits.

Ma’s great devotion to her work has great influence on other Lao staff. “I will work hard and provide better service to the enterprises here for business,” said Nilawan.

Another pair of great partners in this station is Chinese staff Wu Junhong, the trainer, and his trainee Soomxay laoliu. Soomxay firstly met Wu in 2021 when Wu came to Laos from Kunming, capital of Yunnan province. Then, Soomxay learned to drive the train from Wu.

 

Soomxay laoliu (L) and Wu Junhong (R) (Photo by Liu Ziyu and YangChunmei)

They were also the paired train drivers of the on Dec. 13, 2021, the opening day of China-Laos Railway, and on Apr. 13, the day when the direct Kunming-Vientiane train service was launch for international passengers.

This pair of partners said that they had learned a lot from each other. They hoped to go to Kunming together to enjoy some rice noodles. And maybe one day, Wu could go to Soomxay’s hometown for fishing.

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