Riding the China to Laos railway (FULL DOCUMENTARY)
Welcome to Laos, a small country of 7.2 million people in South East Asia that was bombed into oblivion by the USA for nine whole years. But now China has come to show the locals that foreigners aren't always there to cause harm.
In this short documentary, we will travel from Kunming in southern China's Yunnan Province to to the Laos People's Democratic Republic, stopping off at Boten, Luang Prabang, and the capital, Vientiane.
Directed by Andy Boreham. Shot by Zhou Shengjie, Andy Boreham.
VIEWER REVIEW: "Through stunning visuals and insightful narration, the documentary not only highlights the engineering marvel of the railway but also delves into the cultural richness and resilience of the people along its path. It's a powerful reminder that infrastructure can be a catalyst for positive change, bringing communities together and fostering economic growth."
Laos is landlocked, meaning it doesn’t have any access to the sea. It’s surrounded on all sides by Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and of course China to the north.
That geographical difficulty, and the fact that Laos is littered with 80 million unexploded bombs dropped by the US from 1964 to 1973, has stymied the country’s ability to develop, leaving it one of the poorest countries in the region.
The tide has started to turn in Laos’ favor, though, after China helped build the county’s first railway, connecting its capital city, Vientiane, with Kunming in southern China’s Yunnan province.
That’s where I got on-board, eager to visit Laos for the first time and find out how this railway has changed the lives of locals, and started transforming Laos from landlocked, to land-linked.
All up, we'll take a journey of 1,000 kilometers through gorgeous, wild terrain and bomb-littered wasteland, meeting and chatting with interesting people along the way, including a developer, a local student who learned how to build railways in China, a man who has spent 20 years dealing with the aftermath of the 270 million bombs dropped all across Laos by the USA, a local journalist, and a railway official.
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