Attendant relishes line of duty

After conducting the final safety check before the train's departure, Yi Bofeng and her colleagues happily greet each passenger as they board at Kunming South Station in the southwestern province of Yunnan at about 7:40 am every day.

Departing at 8:08 am, the D887 train is scheduled to arrive at Vientiane, capital of Laos, at 6:38 pm.

For the attendant, from the Dai ethnic group, it is not only a train, but a bridge linking her home — in Mengla county, Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, Yunnan — to the world.

Opening international passenger services on April 13, the 1,035-kilometer cross-border railway, a landmark project of the Belt and Road Initiative, allows passengers to travel between Kunming and Vientiane in 10 hours and 30 minutes, including inspections at customs clearance stations at the respective borders. Since it opened, Yi has completed more than 20 round trips.

"I am so happy and excited to become an attendant on the train, because my major is the Lao language and, what's more, the train passes my hometown," Yi says.

She still remembers how it took her more than 10 hours on a bus to reach Kunming from her hometown, but now with the train, the journey is just about five hours.

After graduating from Kunming Metallurgy College in 2020, she became a train attendant in the China Railway Kunming Group and in December 2021, Yi was aboard the first train on its maiden voyage, witnessing the historical opening of the China-Laos Railway.

As of June 3, the railway had handled 16.4 million passenger trips and 21 million metric tons of cargo, according to the China Railway Kunming Group.

With a designated speed of 160 kilometers per hour, the railway aims to promote the movement of people and cargo between the two countries, and further play a role as a key corridor to boost communications in the Southeast Asia region.

"The railway has made me 'the star of the village'. In the past, there was no train service to and from my village, and villagers had no idea about trains. Now they will come to me with any questions related to the train service," Yi says.

She adds that, thanks to the close proximity of the railway, products, such as fruits and handmade ethnic garments, from nearby villages can be delivered to the market more quickly.

The China-Laos Railway serves Yunnan's Pu'er city and Xishuangbanna, and the railway is a crucial factor in facilitating travel in the region. The Lao tourism authorities anticipate that around 368,000 Chinese travelers will visit Laos this year, up 21 percent compared to last year.

At 12:27 am, the D887 train arrived at Mohan station in Yunnan, before running onto the Laotian section. Yi gets off the train and spends the rest of the day visiting her grandparents who live in Naka village, Mengla county.

Yi says that the railway connects her family and her dream. This September, she plans to take her grandmother, who has never seen a train before, on a journey.