China-Singapore, birth of the trans-Asian train
Audio 02:33
In the Laotian town of Louang Prabang, a sign announces the construction of the first high-speed train between China and Laos.
February 2020 © AFP - AIDAN JONES
By: Marina Mielczarek
6 mins
A China-Laos-Thailand TGV ticket that can even go to Singapore!
Included in their project of new Silk Roads, the Pan-Asian rail was born.
The first trips between southern China and Laos have already been announced.
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Despite the pandemic, these first high-speed trips should link the Chinese border and Vientiane, the Laotian capital in December 2021. 414 kilometers of rails, half of which are under tunnels.
Wood, fruit for household appliances
These Laotian freight trains will export raw materials: wood, fruit, fish, rice.
In return, the Chinese will send kitchen equipment, maintenance and construction materials.
Chinese diasporas in Southeast Asia
Chinese influence or economic equality?
The subject divides the experts.
For Emmanuel Véron, a specialist in China at the Institute of Oriental Languages (Inalco) in Paris, rail transport is part of a much broader logic of regional economic integration.
“
This new rail network will be added to the roads and highways built by the Chinese and widely used in this part of Southeast Asia.
Admittedly, small countries benefit from development that brings wages and wealth, but they are highly unequal!
China dominates this give-and-take by investing in infrastructure.
“, He assures.
The Mekong River, the other way of development
Hydraulic dams, river transport, agricultural reservoirs… The Chinese have already established themselves strongly along the Mekong River.
Hotels and casinos flourished there.
The operating logic will continue.
China needs water to supply its agriculture, its populations and especially the hydraulic power stations that it wants to build for its electricity needs.
The train, the link to the sea
In Vientiane, the Laotian capital, the advertisements for this new transport show the Chinese city of Kunming, which will eventually be the terminus or the departure station for Chinese trains. Professor Eric Mottet, geopolitics specialist at the University of Montreal (who himself lived in Laos for a long time) sees it as an opportunity for Laos as for all of South-East Asia: “
This project to link China to Thailand , in Laos and Vietnam will cost 6 billion US in Laos, he
explains.
A considerable sum, mainly loaned by the Chinese.
This will allow Asian companies but also international companies to establish themselves along the railroad and to make the economy prosper.
Take Laos, the only country stuck between its neighbors, without access to the sea. Thanks to these new freight lines, it will intensify its trade with Thailand (therefore at seaports) and reduce its export tariffs.
"
Chinese tourism, high speed
What effect will these new trains have on tourism?
Here again, opinions are nuanced.
From Phnom Penh in Vietnam, Trang Ngyen, deputy director of the AsiaKing agency, is delighted: “
Our clientele has changed
, she assures us.
She asks for trips where several countries are visited during the same stay.
The arrival of trains in our Southeast Asia is good news.
We will be able to offer more options.
And then the train also allows you to enjoy the landscape, more intensely than in a car, where you have to be careful while driving
.
"
The China Travel Style!
For his part, Frédéric D'Hauthuille, founder of Authentic World travel, fears a certain Chinese offensive: “
At Authentic World, we sell soft journeys, no more than 100 kilometers per day
, he explains.
The Chinese do not consider tourism like us.
This is what I have seen in recent years.
They want to cross a country in two days.
However, for me, that does not allow to know the people or the local culture.
It's scary to know that they are going to have the means to go even faster with these trains!
"
As for the single ticket supposed to connect the capitals of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and China, it should be sold as soon as the work is finished, in 2026.
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