China-Laos Railway Mohan port’s crossings surge by 49% during 2025 'chunyun'

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 24, 2022, shows a freight train entering the China-Laos Railway's Friendship Tunnel connecting Mohan in southwest China's Yunnan Province and Boten in northern Laos. (Photo/Xinhua)

The Mohan port in Southwest China's Yunnan Province on the China-Laos Railway facilitated a total of 42,000 inbound and outbound passenger trips during the 40-day 2025 Spring Festival travel rush, up 49 percent year-on-year, China Media Group reported on Sunday.

The passenger surge was due to multiple reasons, including winter vacation for overseas students and Southeast Asian countries' tourists' outbound tour during the holidays, said the report, noting that the China-Laos Railway witnessed the busiest Spring Festival travel rush, also known as chunyun, since it officially became operational about three years ago.

Notably, as the Spring Festival was listed as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage and a slew of effective visa-free policies in China, lots of foreign tourists came to experience the traditional festival via the railway.

During the chunyun, which ran from January 14 to February 22, a total of 6,000 foreigners from 64 countries and regions crossed the Mohan railway port, according to official data.

The 1,035-kilometer cross-border railway, a flagship project within the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, connects China's southwestern city of Kunming with the Laotian capital of Vientiane. It started operation on December 3, 2021.

As of December 2, 2024, the China-Laos Railway has facilitated more than 43 million passenger trips and transported 48.3 million tons of goods during its three years of operation, official data showed.

At present, the Pan-Asia Railway, a railway network connecting China and Southeast Asia, is forming and expanding. The network has been delivering advantages to the countries involved.

Thailand's cabinet on Tuesday approved the second phase of the high-speed rail project that will connect the Southeast Asian country with China through Laos, with completion expected in 2030, the Xinhua News Agency reported on February 5, 2025.

The second phase includes the construction of a logistics hub in the northeastern Nong Khai province in Thailand, which will facilitate freight movement between Thailand's 1-meter gauge railway and the 1.435-meter standard gauge used in the China-Laos Railway, offering a one-stop service for cargo transfer, said the report.

In addition, Vietnam's National Assembly approved investment for the Lao Cai-Hanoi-Hai Phong railway project, Xinhua reported on Wednesday citing Vietnam News Agency. The railway, worth $8.37 billion, aims to construct a modern, integrated rail line to meet both domestic and international transportation demands, particularly between Vietnam and China, said the report.