The one thing which seems to work against it is the distance from station to town centre. Especially pronounced in Vientiane and Luang Prabang where the airport is literally next door. Although there is plenty of room for growth to happen, not sure when the other Chinese elements - urbanisation to station (example: Baoding to Baoding East, Zhengzhou to Zhengzhou East) might happen. Also outwith Vientiane some access roads are bumpy alas - like what I went through to/from Luang Prabang station…

라오스는 역을 중심으로 도시가 빠른 시간내에 확대될 것입니다 . 거기다 라오스는 중국과 고속철도개통으로 더이상 내륙국가가 아님으로 안해 급격한 인구증가와 제조업(생산형 일자리증가)이 늘어날 것입니다 .

@@rainbowsea9679 I sincerely hope so. Laos geographically is landlocked but we have seen many successful case studies of highly-connected landlocked countries in Europe, for example Switzerland. (Translated via Google Translate: 진심으로 그러기를 바랍니다. 라오스는 지리적으로 내륙에 위치해 있지만 스위스와 같이 유럽에서 고도로 연결된 내륙 국가에 대한 성공적인 사례 연구를 많이 보았습니다.)

​@@DavidFengTrains To get rich first build a road. The journey of a thousand miles start with the first step. Dated back a couple of hundred year ago, didn't Schweiz (CH) has the same humble beginning?

@@qinminwan5835 And very big time! The Gotthard rail tunnel over a century back was transformative in how people got around Switzerland. They know they’re wanted more, so along with technological improvements, they then added a motorway tunnel and now a High Speed base tunnel.

Thanks! The Domestic/International Exit/Entrance routes (especially the Exit routing) can be a challenge. I wanted to head out at Mohan station in China via the International Exit - makes sense as I wanted to go to Laos! - but was led to Domestic first... Made little sense until I saw it made some sense the 'other' way!

You're right.

You’ll be amazed at just how technically advanced everything is once you’re north of the border. Of course the whole line is state-of-the-art but OMG, the Customs & Immi gear at Mohan border station!…

Encouragingly the 350 km/h HS link from KL to Singapore seem ready for a possible rebirth…

Mileage is always tricky. Do you count parts with actual international rail service? In this case it's 🇨🇳Kunming South - 🇱🇦Vientiane. Do you count fare-based mileage or actual geographical mileage? Do you base it on the "station mid-point" stats or how much you pay for? I'm hoping also to get more accurate stats when I do a second review video soon. (有關歷程，應如何計算? 以實際國際列車運營區間為準? 倘為該定義，則僅應將 🇨🇳昆明南 - 🇱🇦永珍/萬象區間計入。或是否應以車資運營里程為準，或為地理里程/各站「中心里程」計入? 我會爭取在完成後續視訊中，將其納入考量。)

From China you can purchase tickets from Kunming to any destination in China or Laos. For this you need a China Railway 12306 online booking account but you should be able to do this with an email address only. From Laos it’ll be more difficult, unfortunately. In Laos I made use of 12go.asia for domestic stretches or went straight to the station ahead of time for international ones.

LCR Ticket

@@mickeykwok Supports Lao mobile numbers only… hardly universal access outside the country…

LCR Ticket APP

@@bcibm7917 will it work for non Laos mobile?

I’ll be making note of this in my next video on this - a personal review of the line with my own views.

Total length: 414.332 kilometers bridge number and length: 162/68.093km tunnel number and length: 72/183.978km Number of total stations: 32 stations along the route Train Track Specs: single 1.435-metre standard-gauge track electrified mixed-traffic line is to be built to China’s GB Grade 1 standards, suitable for 160-200 km/h passenger and 120 km/h freight trains

@@sirisakpimchan7014Thanks for the great information. That's an impressively long total length of 72 tunnels. The bridges ain't bad either. Believe the passenger rail top speed is 160 km/h. The trains may be capable of 200 km/h but the tracks limit speed to 160 km/h. With a very efficient average speed of 110 km/h it is slightly higher than Brightline and equal to Acela.

​@@davidjackson7281 Train Track Specs: single 1.435-metre standard-gauge track electrified mixed-traffic line is to be built to China’s GB Grade 1 standards. Dynamic testing by China Academy of Railway Sciences Corporation Limited. On the mountain, the passenger train can travel 160-176 km/hr. Flat 110-210 km/hr. A 3000 ton freight trains can travel 80 km/hr.

@@sirisakpimchan7014 Thanks for these stats! For the stations, did they factor in also the futureproofed ones in either country?

I never use AI or voice generation software! It’s the real me behind the microphone! (我從未使用人工智能或是音訊製成軟件! 這是我在咪高風前「真人」音訊!)

I have been aware of irregular situations at border checks when leaving Laos at Boten railway station. I was delayed a little bit in line. However, eventually they let me pass with no problems.

@@DavidFengTrains kzfaq.info/get/bejne/sNliidSjl8faf3k.htmlsi=PdR6rICtMEkr1QQ5 Because of this and similar annoyin experiences, we as a group decided not to use it.

@@sagunesi I think I was aware of this video. Crossing a border always entails potential risks especially in less developed nations. Eventually the decision to travel on this train, or not, is an individual one.

@@sagunesi systematic security checks are the rule on this line, and yes, this is like China. If you are carrying stuff you’re not supposed to you will have the incident recorded - depending on the circumstances there is a telling-off or a fine… or anything else as prescribed by legislation.

China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and North Korea (DPRK)

China's economy is a combination of planned economy and market economy. Industries related to the national economy and people's livelihood are state-owned enterprises, such as water supply, electricity, gas, railways, etc., while other industries are private enterprises and innovation is encouraged. Politically speaking, the primary stage of socialism can be understood as the transition stage from capitalism to socialism. Emphasize the regulatory power of the government. The idea of the United States is to weaken the power of the Chinese government and turn China into a one-person-one-vote democracy, then support an actor to become president, and then use American capital to purchase Chinese media to manipulate Chinese voters. Of course, all Chinese people are aware of this plan, so it cannot succeed.

Laos undeniably is not what we would call high income (note: as in, at this moment). Costs of especially the higher classes of travel on the train can be beyond reach. I think however the issue can be solved by also running some slower trains (which is already happening) plus using the rail route to encourage tourism. Nothing really happens overnight, but I think we are on the right track, so to speak.

Debt trap if passengers less than 3700 per day, now 4889 passengers per day, not include freight trains.

@@sirisakpimchan7014 Historically but especially in China freight can prove to be a huge $ saviour if you will. Google "Datong-QInhuangdao railway" for an example which basically is printing its own money (it can't, but just saying; and was making heaps especially in the early 2000s)... EDIT: + also, they are now actually thinking of running 2 more cross-border international trains...

@@sirisakpimchan7014 Even in China, passenger trains are almost certainly lost money, you need to motivate them travel by trains so you can't charge them too much. Railway is always making profit on their frieght services.

@@enzhus worldbank2020 From Landlocked to Land-Linked Unlocking the Potential of Lao-China Rail Connectivity.pdf. Worldbank has evaluate, no probleb. But China section, ADB 45031-001-tacr-en Yuxi-Mohan%20 (45031-002) Final Report.pdf need The Asian Development Bank (ADB) for soft loan.

US: ⌨️💥🤬 China: 🔨👷‍♂️🙃