The Fangchenggang-Dongxing high-speed railway line in Guangxi is expected to be completed by the end of September 2023 and put into operation in December 2023.
This is a 46.9km long high-speed railway, running straight to the China-Vietnam border with a speed of 200km/h and is expected to reach 250km/h in the future. On August 8th, according to Chinanews.com, they had installed rails on this highway. And up to now, the construction is about 97% complete. This is also China's first railway to Dongxing - the only border gate connecting China and Vietnam by both sea and land.
This high-speed railway will mainly serve passenger transport. In addition, it will undertake some additional stages of transporting goods from China to the border between Vietnam and China. Chinese officials expect the high-speed rail line will play a positive role in promoting trade connections between the two countries by reducing the travel time between the two locations from 60 minutes to 20 minutes, and connecting Dongxing - a border city bordering Mong Cai in Vietnam - with China's 42,000km high-speed rail network. At the same time, shorten the distance to Van Don - Mong Cai highway in Vietnam to 5km.
This high-speed railway of China creates a premise for the development of trade between the two countries, but the security and economic risks are something that the goverment need to consider in the near future.
Currently, Vietnam railway connects with China railway through two gateways: Dong Dang (Lang Son) - Nanning (Guangxi) and Lao Cai - Kunming (Yunnan).
In December 2021, China opened the Kunming - Vientiane railway (Laos) with a length of 1,035 km. This is currently the main railway connecting China with the ASEAN region. In the first 20 months of operation, the route carried 19 million passengers and more than 23 million tons of cargo. In particular, as of early August 2023, the China - Lao Cai railway has transported 2.5 million tons of cross-border goods, including agricultural products, iron ore, tapioca and rubber.
