China-Laos Railway completes cross-border tunnel

[Video/Yao Wei, Chen Chang and Wang Yufei]

The cross-border tunnel on the China-Laos Railway was completed on Sunday, laying a solid foundation for the full operation of the whole line.

Dubbed as the "friendship tunnel," it covers a total length of 9.59 kilometers, with 7.17 kilometers on the Chinese side and 2.42 kilometers on the Lao section.

Using China's technical standards and equipment, the China-Laos Railway measures more than 1,000 kilometers from Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan province, to Vientiane, capital of Laos. The project is scheduled to be completed and opened to traffic at the end of 2021 and will cut the travel time between Kunming and Vientiane to 12 hours.