A review of the Laos-China Railway

Greetings from Saigon. I’m back in Vietnam for a month so I will be doing some construction and metro updates while I am here. One thing that I won’t be doing for years to come is any sort of new railway report for Vietnam. I was thinking about this while compiling this week’s article about the new Laos-China Railway.

I was in Laos at the same time that a Vietnamese Party delegation was visiting Laos. They were in Vientiane, but I was hoping that the Laotians would take them on a day trip to Luang Prabang on the new train, if only to show off. Even though it was Chinese money and know-how that built the railway, it still makes Vietnam look bad that they have spent decades deliberating over how and when to upgrade their aging national railway. It will look even worse if Laos goes ahead and builds the Vientiane to Vung Ang Railway and then completes it before Vietname even starts with their North-South Express project.

In addition to this week’s Laos railway report, I did a travel review on Nomadic Notes.

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Laos-China Railway review – observations while riding the train from Vientiane to Boten

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