Feature: Along China-Laos Railway, new jobs and shorter journeys reshape lives

SHANGHAI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- At the home of a village chief near Boten, a Lao border town, Li Peigang, a teacher at Shanghai Institute of Technology, opened a calendar on the table and pointed to the faces on its pages.

"You can find our students on promotional posters for the China-Laos Railway," he said. "They are seeds of China-Laos friendship."

The scene was described in a recent report by Shanghai-based newspaper Jiefang Daily on a journey along the railway by a volunteer team from Shanghai Institute of Technology in late July.

The people pictured were Lao graduates of a joint railway training program launched in 2018 by Shanghai Institute of Technology and Souphanouvong University. The program has trained more than 70 Lao railway professionals, more than 10 of whom now serve in key technical posts on the line.

Opened on Dec. 3, 2021, the 1,035-km railway, a landmark infrastructure project of the Belt and Road Initiative, connects Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province with Vientiane, the Lao capital, giving landlocked Laos a direct rail link to China and markets farther afield.

A LINE THROUGH DAILY LIFE

According to the report, the railway runs through the village, whose Lao name means "salt" -- a reference to an industry that once sustained the area before declining.

During construction, villagers saw large Chinese construction equipment and giant bridge piers for the first time.

"Chinese technology was far beyond what we had imagined," the village chief said.

Along the village road, trucks carrying Thai fruit and food now head north toward China. Between 100 and 200 of the village's 1,370 residents work for the railway or in related logistics. Fifteen households have bought heavy freight trucks. At peak times, local trucks make up to 40 trips a day.

The chief said nearly all the electrical appliances in his home are Chinese-made. He often travels by train to Mohan and Kunming for training, then brings what he learns back to the village. More than 100 residents can now communicate in basic Chinese.

In 2023, Thinsom Village, about a 30-minute drive from central Luang Prabang, and Shibadong Village in China's Hunan Province signed an agreement of intent to become international sister villages.

Since then, Thinsom's primary school has been renovated and a kindergarten built with Chinese support, allowing local children to attend school closer to home.

Agricultural training organized by Chinese experts has helped villagers diversify beyond rice. Corn and peanuts now grow in local fields, while residents also cultivate lemons, melons and yardlong beans.

A deputy village chief said his latest corn harvest sold for 8 million kip, or about 350 U.S. dollars.

On their journey south, the Chinese university volunteers treated each encounter as a field lesson. They asked fruit sellers about business, drivers about changes in transport and station workers about trains and passenger flows.

Team members observed that children whose parents worked near the border could see their parents more often, while members of cross-border families spent less time apart.

They also noted that affordable same-day travel had made it easier to start businesses, turning some ideas once considered impractical into real possibilities.

One student, however, recorded shortcomings in transport connections and commercial services around some stations. More supporting infrastructure, he wrote, would be needed for the railway to contribute to sustained rural development.

Official data showed that annual cargo volume rose from 12.47 million tonnes in 2022 to 24.48 million tonnes in 2025.

At a July 28 press conference held by China's National Development and Reform Commission, an official from Yunnan said cumulative freight had exceeded 86 million tonnes and that Laos became Yunnan's second-largest trading partner for the first time in 2025.

Kunming Customs said that, as of June 30, 2026, the number of categories of goods carried by the railway had increased from just over 10 when operations began to more than 3,900. Goods transported via the railway now reach 19 countries and regions, including Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Bangladesh.

FROM CLASSROOMS TO RAILWAY JOBS

At a primary school in Muang Xay, Chinese student volunteers wrote Chinese words including "railway" and "friend" on the blackboard. The children repeated the words, then raised their hands eagerly during drawing-and-guessing games and quizzes.

One volunteer drew a white magnolia, Shanghai's city flower, beside a Dok Champa, the national flower of Laos.

The team also invited railway workers to teach the children basic railway knowledge. When teachers asked whether the volunteers could help compile railway safety materials for future classes, the students carefully wrote down the request.

In Thinsom, the team met a 12-year-old boy who had just returned from Vientiane by train. His eyes lit up as he said he wanted to work on the railway when he grew up.

One alumnus had already made the railway his career. After studying railway engineering in Shanghai for three years, he returned to Laos in 2022 and began working in railway maintenance. Four years later, he had risen from an entry-level worker to a team leader.

He met his wife through the railway. She also works on the line. The couple have bought land and are saving to build a home.

At the Luang Prabang Maintenance Management Center, other graduates work in power supply, track maintenance, maintenance coordination and staff training.

Another alumnus returned to Souphanouvong University as a teacher. He is now helping the two universities prepare engineering training materials through cooperation under the China-Laos Engineering College.

The railway's impact extends beyond transport. Along the line, agricultural training and education programs have carried its benefits into fields, classrooms and workplaces -- a practical expression of Belt and Road cooperation.

As China and Laos mark the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the Year of China-Laos Friendship in 2026 -- also the fifth anniversary of the railway's opening -- the calendar in the village chief's home brought the story back to the people at its center.

The faces on its pages belonged to Lao students who had studied railway engineering in Shanghai and returned home to become part of the country's first generation of railway engineers.

The railway they once prepared for in classrooms is now the railway they help keep running. ■