Chinas Railway for Laos: From Boten to Vientiane - The Maps

Update 16.8.2018

Construction work for the railway from Chinas border in Boten (磨丁市) to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, has advanced. Follow the updates here.


Let's start with the Boten-Vientiane-Railway Google Map by #treasuresoflaos with latest updates:


A list of all planned station has been published by Wisarut. This blogger has matched it with a list published by Bounthone Sanasinh:

0. km Zero at Lao - China Border at Lao - China Friendship Tunnel (友谊隧道)
1. Boten (磨丁个车站, ສະຖານີບໍແຕນ); the Southern end of Friendship tunnels - km 3 + 020
2. Na Teuy (纳堆个车站, ສະຖານີນາເຕີຍ) km 15+400 2
3. Na Mor (纳磨个车站, ສະຖານີນາໝໍ້) km 30+940
4. Na Thong (那通个车站, ສະຖານີນາທອງ); km 40 + 675
5. Muong Xai Station (孟塞个车站, ສະຖານີເມືອງໄຊ) the provincial capital of Oudomsay province - km 69 + 550
6. Ban Na Khok Station (班纳科个车站, ສະຖານີບ້ານນາກອກ)
7. Muong Nga (孟阿火车站, ສະຖານີເມືອງງາ) km 115 + 720
8. Huoi Han Nga Station (会汉河 个车站, ສະຖານີຫ້ວຍຫັນງາ)
9. Luang Prabang (琅勃拉邦个车站, ສະຖານີຫລວງພະບາງ) - km 170 + 200
10. Xieng Ngeun Station (相嫩个车站, ສະຖານີຊຽງເງີນ) - southern suburb of Luang Prabang - km 179 + 150
11. Sala Patu Station (沙拉巴土个车站, ສະຖານີສາລາພາທູ) km 211 + 620
12. Muong Kasi (孟卡西 个车站, ສະຖານີເມືອງກາສີ) - km 240 + 090
13. Ban Phatang Station(班帕当 个车站, ສະຖານີບ້ານພາຕັ້ງ) - km 268 + 250
14. Vang Vieng (万荣 个车站, ສະຖານີວັງວຽງ) - tourist spot - km 285 + 100
15. Wang Khi station (万基个车站, ສະຖານີວັງຂີ) - km 312 + 175
16. Phonh Hong (丰洪个车站, ສະຖານີໂພນໂຮງ) - Provincial Capital of Vieng Chan - km 344 + 575
17. Ban Phonh Sung (班芬送个车站, ສະຖານີບ້ານໂພນສູງ) km 374+650
18. Vientiane Neua - (万象北个车站, ສະຖານີວຽງຈັນເໜືອ) Northern Vieng Chan capital - km 390 + 050
19. Vientiane (象北 个车站, ສະຖານີວຽງຈັນໃຕ້) - km 408 + 240 - Lao National University of Laos at Ban Don Noun, Viengchan Capital
22. Vientiane Tai (万象南 个车站, ສະຖານີວຽງຈັນໃຕ້) - clearly the station near National Stadium at Lak 16 at km 412 + 300 - not in the list of starting yet since this has been terminated at km 409+000
23. Thanaleng East (塔拉能东 ท่านาแล้งตะวันออก) - clearly the station near Tha Nalaeng station at km 425+000 - not in the list of starting yet since this has been terminated at km 409+000


Maps published in an early stage of planning:

Line from border between Laos and China at Boten (Map 1)

Detail of Line at Boten (Map2)


(Map 3)

Line west of Oudomsay airport (Map 4)



Line south of Oudomsay (Map 5)

Line near Luang Prabang (Map 6)

Line south of Luang Prabang< (Map 7)br> The line crosses N13 north of Nam Ngum Lake, south of Vang Vieng (Map 8)

The line follows N13 west of Nam Ngum Lake (Map 9)


North of Vientiane the line follows N13 national road (Map 10)


The line crosses the Mekong and the border to Thailand at Nong Khai, Vientiane and its airport at the left (Map 11)


Source of the maps: 新建铁路磨丁至万象线线路平 Boten Vientiane Railway Line
. See this map also in this video.


See also this map by designforconservation.org
. And see the line on this Youtube-Visualisation.


Planned is an electrified single track (standard track gauge) with a distance of 427,7 km. There will be 162 bridges with a total distance of 68.093 km, 72 tunnels with the distance of 183.978 km. Maximum speed for cargo will be 120 kph, maximum speed for passenger trains from Boten to Vang Vieng will be 160 kph, from Vang Vieng to Vientiane capital 200 kph. 33 stations are planned, but first only 21 stations will be built. These will allow trains passing each other. 11 stations will offer passenger services.

7 major tunnels are planned:
Lao - China Friendship tunnel (友谊隧道 and 玉磨铁路友谊隧道): 9,68 km, 2,51 km on Lao side of border while 7,17 km on Chinese side. Start of construction in June 2016 by China Railway Second Bureau.
Kong Lang tunnel (空琅村隧道, 8150 meter)
Wa Nu Mountain (努瓦山隧道, 8185 meter)
Phu Kluea (福格村隧道, 8880 meter)
Ka (卡村隧道, 8005 meter)
Sen tunnel (森村隧道, 9405 meter)
La Meng tunnel (拉孟山隧道, 8055 meter)

According to the plan, there will be 11 stations for passenger use. 3 will be built in Oudomxay's Namor, Xay and Nga districts. 2 more stations will be built in Luang Prabang and Xieng-ngeun districts in Luang Prabang province. 3 will be constructed in Kasy, Vangvieng and Phonhong districts in Vientiane province and the main station will be in Vientiane. A goods transport depot will also be built in Vientiane.

More details here.

The total project cost is estimated at 38.7 billion yuan (over USD 6 billion), which is about 90.6 million yuan (approx. USD 14 million) per kilometre. The Lao government has obtained a loan of about USD 480 million from China to pay its share of the investment cost. Somsavat Lengsavad, Laotian deputy prime minister, said the Chinese government has earlier offered Laos a loan with a three-percent interest rate, adding that Laotian government also asked the Chinese government to reduce the rate. He did not mention what the agreed-upon interest rate was. Laos will back the loan with five of its potash mines. Somsavat said after calculation, Laos has determined that it will be able to pay it back to China within five years instead of 30 years as Laos has five mines.


Construction contracts were awarded as follows:

1. Boten - Meuang Xay (Oudomxay, 88.65 km): China Railway No.5 Engineering Group (owned by China Railway Group Limited)
2. Meuang Xay (Oudomxay) - Nam Seu Bridge (68.8 km, including Mueang Xai station yard): China Railway International Group (owned by China Railway Group Limited)
3. Nam Seu Bridge - Phou Sanen Hill (65.6 km, including Bridge across Sue river): China Railway Baju Group Company (owned by China Railway Group Limited)
4. Phou Sanen Hill - Ban Pa Village (61.49 km): Sinohydro Group
5. Ban Pa Village - Phonhong (79.5 km): Power Construction Corporation of China
6. Phonhong - Vientiane (65.7 km, (including Phone Hong station yard): China Railway Erju Co., Ltd (owned by China Railway Group Limited)


See also Map China Laos Railway


See video of the line

Macao at Mekong: How Chinese money flows into the Golden Triangle

Picture by johntrathome

From the Thai border near the town of Chiang Saen you see two golden domes dominating the Laotian side of the Mekong River. If you cross the river you enter the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Welcome to the "Macau on the Mekong": The casino at Tonphueng in Bokeo province (see video on video 1 on youtube and video 2 on youtube) has been built by Chinese money and investors with links to Macau. Alongside the waterfront boats disgorge Lao and Thai businessmen, and gamblers. Beneath the Laotian immigration officers and some policemen you will meet a lot of Chinese people. The Casino has the Chinese name Jin Mu Mian (金木棉, "golden kapok"). The casino wants to attract visitors from countries, where casinos are forbidden: China and Thailand.

What is a Special Economic zone in Laos gives not mainly work to Lao people. "Of the more than 4,500 people employed in the zone, only around 500 are Laotian", notes Tom Fawthrop in South China Morning Post. And he continues: "The investors who signed the contract to create the SEZ with the Laotian government back in April 2007 have pledged to change the image of the Golden Triangle, once the epicentre of the global heroin trade, into a tourist haven with glittering nightclubs, ecotourism and a new international airport. Yet despite the influx of cash and grandiose plans, there are plenty of concerns about the project, with a prominent Thai business leader and a UN agency worried that the centrepiece casino will be used to launder money from the region's infamous drug trade." And he adds: "And despite the scale of the multibillion-dollar project, the identity of the investors remains largely a mystery."

The man who runs the operation in the name of the King Romans Group (KRG) is 60-year-old Zhao Wei(赵伟), chairman of the SEZ and KRG president (see Zhao Wei on youtube). He says he is vice-chairman of the Macau-Asean Business Association, but the journalist could not track this group down. Critics say that he is connected with the casinos of Mong La, in the Shan area of Myanmar, which many believe belong to the former drug baron Sai Leun, aka Lin Ming Xian (read asianews.it). Clear ist, that Zhao Wei has run a casino in Mongla, the Sin-City in Myanmar, situated opposite the town of Dalou in China's Yunnan province. Mong La in the 1990s established itself as a Chinese tourism hub for gambling, prostitution and transsexual cabaret shows - not to mention rampant money-laundering. 2005 Beijing, after reports of corrupt officials investing state funds on Myanmar gaming tables, banned Chinese officials and citizens from traveling to Mong La. The King Romans Group (Dok Ngiew Kham) is registered in Hong Kong. Its investors are said to be from Hong Kong, Macau and Yunnan Province.

For the moment, there is the casino, a restaurant and a two storey hotel, designed to resemble Beijing’s Forbidden City, and a 30-kilometre road to the nearest town, the regional capital Ban Houei Xay. Later the complex should include a golf course, karaoke bars, massage parlours, a swimming pool, hotels, clinics and shopping centres (see promotion video on youtube. KRG also dreams about an international airport. The government of Laos has signed over 10,000 hectares to the King Romans Group on a 99-year lease, including Don Sao Island. According to Tom Fawthrop KRG plans to invest US$2.25 billion US by 2020 (the entire Laotian national budget in 2009 was estimated at US$1.13 billion). And Zhao Wei is planning a city of 200 000 residents at the end. This would be the second largest town of Laos after Vientiane.

Crucial to the project is the Kunming -Bangkok Expressway. The China section is completed; the only major work remaining is the construction of a bridge spanning the Mekong and linking Laos and Thailand. The 4th Thai-Lao friendship bridge between Chiang Khong and Houay Xay is expected to be completed between late 2013. Some people fear, that Houay Xay could turn into the next Boten, a border town at the Lao-Chinese border, where Chinese traders and workers outnumber locals (read more on Chiang Rai Bulletin) and a Chinese casino had to be closed.

Picture by Prince Roy
Chinese stores and restaurants lining the road to the casino in the Lao border town Boten

The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (Homepage: laosez.com) lies "in the stomping grounds of one particularly powerful drug runner named Naw Kham", notes Lauren Hilgers. She writes: "Naw Kham is a Shan minority from the Burmese side of the border and a wanted man in Thailand, Burma, Laos, and China. His forces (called the “Hawngleuk militia”) exert control through Laos and northern Thailand. His speedboats are said to show up on the river and levy taxes on passing cargo boats, particularly the Chinese ones. In 2008, Naw Kham’s forces shot up a Chinese patrol boat. In April 2011, 34 crew members on three Chinese boats were briefly taken hostage by a group of pirates assumed to be answering to the drug lord. This past October, 13 Chinese were shot and killed while sitting in two small boats full of methamphetamine." Meanwhile Naw Kham has been arrested and waits in a prison in China for his trial.

Lauren Hilgers adds: "Border casinos are attractive to Chinese investors for two reasons — they fill a huge demand for gambling and they facilitate the process of getting money out of the mainland." And then she writes: "Zhao insists his intentions in Laos are good. His goal, he says, is to be here for a long time. But it is hard to see how he will do it without at least reaching an agreement with local drug runners."

Vice president of Kings Romans Group is Wenxin Zheng. He assured Lauren Hilgers "that there is no drinking or prostitution in the casino, but on the north side of the hotel I spot a shabby pink building with a row of dubious-looking massage parlors on the ground floor, and on the second level a bar whose windows have been blacked out by giant posters of pole-dancing ladies. A tall woman in short shorts stands outside one of the storefronts, sipping a Coke."

If you are foreigner and visiting Thailand it is not so easy to go to the casino. You are now allowed to exit or enter Thailand at Sop Ruak and exit/enter Laos at the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone. Here you need a Lao visum (30 days for 30 to 35 US-dollars.

Update on April 19 in 2014:

A chinatown market has been opened in August 2013 with 70 restaurants and shops. There are doubts, where the money for all the investments is coming from. Thai businessman Pattana Sittisombat, president of the Committee for the Economic Quadrangle, said: “I am absolutely concerned about the possibility that illicit funds could be attracted to this project, and that it could provide opportunities for money laundering.” (according to rfa.org).

And there is another development: "Between Houay Xai and the Kings Romans casino, about 4,000 hectares of rice paddy fields have been transformed over the past two years into banana plantations", reports asia.nikkei.com. Chinese investors have leased the land from farmers. "The move has radically changed local lifestyles: the farmer-landlords earn 30,000-40,000 baht ($1,000 to $1,300) in rent per year, plus around 200 baht a day if they work on the banana plantations."

Meanwhile Lao farmers are protesting against the Airport project of King Romans Group. The group originally wanted to take 236 hectares (583 acres) from 46 farmer families in six villages in return for compensation well below market value, but lately the developer announced plans to extend the area required for the project by an additional six hectares (15 acres), as rfa.org reports. The farmers on April 3 prevented King Romans officials from measuring out the new parcel of land under the protection of armed guards. The plans for the international airport project affect the villages of Phonehom, Donmoun, Phiengyam, Mokkachok, Khouan and Sibouheung.


Update January 31, 2018

The U.S. Treasury Department has slapped sanctions on casino owner Zhao Wei and three other individuals which it said was involved in drug, human and wildlife trafficking and child prostitution. Read press release and who is under sancions. Operating via the King Romans Casino, the Zhao Wei network allowed the storage and distribution of heroin and other narcotics, the statement said according to Reuters. “The Zhao Wei crime network engages in an array of horrendous illicit activities, including human trafficking and child prostitution, drug trafficking and wildlife traffick­ing,” said Sigal Mandelker, US Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence according to South China Morning Post. According to US officials Zhao Wei has connections with Wa State Army in Myanmar. In a statement released to newspapers in Laos and China, Zhao hit back. “As an investor, all of my own activities and those of my staff and companies in all countries and areas are legal, ordi­nary business operations supervised by the legal authorities of the relevant countries that have not harmed the interests of any country or individual.”

South China Morning Post Magazine travelled to the casino and found that an array of illegal wildlife products were being sold openly. "Slabs of rhino horn and pieces of ivory were available at stalls inside the entrance of the Blue Shield Casino. In the nearby shopping area, outlets were selling elephant skin and rhino horn for 200 yuan (HK$250) a gram. On a shabby farm masquerading as a zoo next to the Mekong River, 25 tigers and 28 bears were being kept in small cages", wrote South China Morning Post.


Update August 2018
Around King Roman Casino a new town with highrise buildings has been built, as you can see at the end of this video on youtube. In 2018 LianShing 聯盛 Group celebrated the opening of a Vip room in Blue Shield Casino.


Read also:
Gambling a Foreign Hand
Busted flash: How Golden City in Boten, at the Lao/China border, was shut down
Dams, Casinos and Concessions - Rising Powers. Chinese Megaprojects in Laos
Little, landlocked Laos: Pawn or pivot in Asia’s future?

Golden Boten City has been closed down - will it wake up again with help from China?

Picture by sama sama - massa
Chinese shops along the road in Boten

In Oudomxay province, a mountainous region south of the Chinese border in northern Laos you can see the effects of foreign investment by Chinese business in Laos, notes chinadialogue.net. In 2002, the Lao government earmarked the region for development including hotels, casinos and commercial centres. Sitting on the Chinese border next to Route 3, the town of Boten (磨丁市) was designated a Special Economic Zone. And the big plans led to a big name: "Boten Golden City". The 21 square kilometers on which the town sits have been leased for 30 years by a Hong Kong-registered company, led by Wong Man Suen, with an option to extend this lease by another 60 years, as Asia Times Online noted. The main road, was paved. Chinese workers poured into the Boten Special Economic Zone as construction sites and towering hotels sprang up amid the verdant hills. Dominating the landscape of Boten is the 271-room Royal Jinlun hotel and casino complex, and there were Chinese restaurants, cell-phone outlets, duty free shops and stalls selling cheap Chinese products. It was illegal for Laotians to gamble, in was also illegal for Chinese in China, but Chinese could simply walk across the border without a visa. The town worked on Beijing time, accepted only Chinese currency and spoke only Mandarin Chinese. Electricity and telephone lines ran from China, and electric sockets adhered to Chinese standards. The growing numbers of prostitutes that patrolled the streets were all Chinese, as were the beer and the cigarettes (see pictures by Midnitemapper).

But in April 2011 the casino was shut down after Chinese authorities had urged their neighbors in Laos to do so. This after media reports that Chinese gamblers were held hostage in Boten for unpaid debts. Most shop and restaurant owners then packed up and left, the same did a Thai transvestite show and the Chinese prostitutes. "The enclave’s economy seems to have collapsed just as the builders hit their stride with a new high-rise hotel and a shopping centre bristling with columns in the classical style", reports Lone Rider. Ron Gluckman wrote in Forbes Asia Magazine that the owners of Golden Boten City were looking out for new investors.

In March 2012 Vientiane Times reported that an unnamed Chinese investor had taken over and that Golden Boten City would become a casino-free zone and that the Lao goverment changed the area from a Special Economic Zone to a Specific Economic Zone. The move gives the Luang Namtha provincial administration greater power to control social and security issues. Officials said the new investor wanted to transform Boten Golden City into a tourism destination showcasing the Lue culture. The Lue ethnic group lives along the Lao, Thai and Chinese borders. The investor is said to have put the Lue culture on stage in Xishuangbana in Yunnan province (China) and in Chiang Mai province of Thailand.

In April 2012 came the news, that the Lao government signed a new agreement with Yunnan Hai Cheng Industrial Group Stock Co. and - surprisingly - again Wong Man Suen’s Hong Kong Fuk Hing Travel Entertainment Group. The investors are said to invest 500 Millions US-Dollars.

But until now not much has changed in Boten. Jack Kurtz, a photojournalist based in Bangkok, travelled to Oudomxay last month to document the effect of China’s investment on the landscape and local people. He found sparkling new shopping centres empty of customers – the goods are too expensive for the local people – and a landscape dotted with cranes, construction and trucks. The development, particularly the paving of the road, has transformed life for many in the province, drawing people down from homes in the mountains to earn a living from tourists or truck drivers who frequent the road. See Jack Kurtz about Oudomxay.

Picture by Prince Roy
The Royal Hotel in Boten

Chinese money brings big change:A railway from the North of Laos to Vientianeand Thailand

China has just opened the worlds longest Highspeed-Railway from Beijing in the north along 2298 km to the southern boom city of Guangzhou. There were a lot of international headlines around the first train on this line. And they helped to forget the big problems with Chinese Highspeed Trains as the Wenzou train collision in the not so far past.

But the Chinese Railway policy has much bigger ambitions. It is under way to create a Highspeed Railway System in Southeast Asia, linking China to Laos and Thailand and creating connections from China to Singapore.

Laos is forcing plans for a $7 billion railway link from the capital Vientiane in the South to the Chinese border in the North (passing the towns of Phonhong, Vangvieng, Luang Prabang, Oudomxay and Luang Namtha). The construction shall begin early in 2013. The line will be completed around 2014, said Laotian Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad at an international rail conference in Beijing. "While the exact route isn't clear, the rail line is expected to connect the southwest Chinese city of Kunming with Singapore, passing through Laos, Thailand and Malaysia", wrote wsj.com.

The project is financed by a 30-year loan from Export-Import Bank of China, according to rfa.org. China will be responsible for the construction. "Beijing is seeking to secure raw materials from neighboring countries to feed massive infrastructure investment and its manufacturing industry", wrote wsj.com. There is one more railway project in Laos: On December 24 a contract was signed for a US $5 billion railway line from Savannakhet to Lao Bao at Vietnam border. The construction is undertaken by Malaysian company Giant Consolidated, writes enjoy-laos.com.

Meanwhile preparations for four highspeed-railway lines in Thailand are going on. Funding is to come from a proposed 2-trillion-baht investment programme dedicated to new infrastructure projects over the next seven years. In November 2012 Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said according to Bangkok Post the government is planning four high-speed rail lines to support trade and tourism within the country. The four high-speed rail lines are Bangkok-Nong Khai-Vientiane; Bangkok-Ayutthaya-Chiang Mai; Bangkok to Hua Hin; and an expansion of the Airport Rail Link in Bangkok to Chon Buri, Pattaya and Rayong. These plans are supported by a Study of Thailand Development Research Institute Foundation. And China is aggressively lobbying the Thai government to select its train and construction technology, writes Bangkok Post. Chinese Deputy Railways Minister Lu Chunfang told Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra that its construction costs average only US$20 million per kilometre compared with $81 million in Japan and $50 million in Germany. Thailand and China signed a memorandum of understanding on April 15 to conduct a feasibility study for the Bangkok-Chiang Mai and Bangkok-Nong Khai high-speed rail links. Thailands government plans to open international bidding early next year on the first phase of the high-speed rail project. Chinese government officials advising Thailand have suggested that it begins with a 54km route linking Bangkok and Ayutthaya as it would fall in line with the government's push to have the ancient capital serve as host for the 2020 World Expo, noted Bangkok Post.


Update from April 5 in 2013:

The ruling Party in Laos has given the go-ahead to the government to officially negotiate the controversial US-Dollar 7.2 billion loan with China to finance the high-speed railway project linking the two countries, notes Radio Free Asia.


Read also:
Growing Chinese influence in Cambodia: A railway from Preah Vihear, a steel plant and a seaport in Koh Kong

China and Laos: An Uneasy Embrace
by Prashanth Parameswaran for The Jamestown Foundation

Sanjiang Mall: Chinas growing influence in Vientiane

See the location on Sanjiang Mall Google Map

Laos’ economy quadrupled in size between 2002 and 2010. Its traditional investors have been Thai and Vietnamese, but in 2010, by investing $344 million over the course of just six months, Chinese companies overtook them both. Iain Manley writes this in an interesting article about the Chinese merchants of Vientiane. When staying in Vientiane he discovered a large community of immigrants from China who had arrived recently around Sanjiang Cheng – Three Rivers City – a wholesale market, also known as Xang Chieng Market. Its the largest mall for Chinese products in Southeast Asia, writes Manley. The market is located in Oumong, opposite Wat Tay Yai, and the Lao people call it Talat Jin (Jin means Chinese). A more detailed report has been published on oldworldwandering.com. And a guide to Vientiane's chinatown has been published on travelfish.org. Read also: China Gives Southeast Asia’s Poorest First Time Access to Consumer Goods.