While debates over digging the Kra Canal or building a trans-oceanic land bridge remain unresolved, a new freight corridor has been opened, linking Kunming, China, to Thailand’s Ranong Port and further extending to Myanmar, Bangladesh, and other countries. This offers a new international logistics solution to bypass the Malacca Strait.
On July 4, the "Zheng He" sea-rail-road international intermodal freight train made its maiden voyage from the Kunming Jinning Tengjun International Dry Port Rail-Road Intermodal Center. This marks the official opening of a new major international logistics corridor connecting southwest China to the Indian Ocean.
The most distinctive feature of this route is its bypass of the Malacca Strait, enabling direct transportation from Kunming to ports on the Indian Ocean. At a time when progress on the Western Line of the Trans-Asian Railway has been sluggish, this new China-Indian Ocean corridor holds great significance.
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Direct Access to the Indian Ocean
According to official announcements, the "Zheng He" train departs from Jinning District, Kunming—the hometown of Zheng He—travels via the China-Laos Railway to Vientiane, Laos, and then splits into three routes to complete the transportation:
- The first route transfers to Thai railways to reach Pathum Thani Province, Thailand;
- The second connects via road to Thailand’s Laem Chabang Port, then continues by sea to Singapore;
- The third links via road to Thailand’s Ranong Port, then sails by sea to Yangon Port in Myanmar, and further onwards to Chittagong Port in Bangladesh.
Among these, the third route pioneers an entirely new path. Compared to the traditional model of exiting through the Beibu Gulf and traversing the Malacca Strait, the new route shortens the transportation distance by nearly one-third (approximately 1,700 kilometers), reduces travel time by half (about 17 days), improves transportation efficiency by over 50%, and eliminates the need to pass through the Malacca Strait.
In fact, as envisaged in the Trans-Asian Railway Network plan, a China-Myanmar Railway from Kunming to Myanmar’s Kyaukpyu Port—running roughly parallel to the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines—was designed as the Western Line of the Trans-Asian Railway, forming a direct outlet for China to the Indian Ocean. However, while construction on the Chinese section has advanced vigorously, progress on the Myanmar section has fallen short of expectations due to various factors.
Ranong is situated on the coast of the Andaman Sea, west of the Kra Isthmus, adjacent to Chumphon on the Gulf of Thailand. This is the narrowest point of the Malay Peninsula. Regarding the development of this region, international and Thai proposals have included a canal plan (involving the excavation of an approximately 100-kilometer canal) and a land bridge plan (constructing railways and other infrastructure to form a land bridge). Once completed, both would drastically shorten shipping routes from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean.
However, both plans face issues of massive investment, as well as impacts from multiple factors including Thai domestic politics, ecological conservation, and international geopolitics. Currently, neither plan has been implemented.
Against this backdrop, the China-Laos Railway, which opened in December 2021, has created new conditions for China’s direct access to the Indian Ocean. In the over three years since its operation, China-Laos and China-Laos-Thailand international logistics has grown rapidly. In the first half of this year, the total cargo volume transported via the China-Laos Railway exceeded 12.6 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 25.9%.
At present, the China-Thailand Railway is still under construction, so transportation from Laos to Thailand requires either railway transshipment or road connections. However, earlier this year, Thailand’s Cabinet approved Phase II of the China-Thailand Railway cooperation project, which is scheduled to commence construction in 2025 and is expected to be completed in 2031. By then, direct standard-gauge railway transportation from Kunming to Thailand will be possible.
On November 19, 2024, the "Kunming Dry Port" China-Laos-Thailand international intermodal freight train made its maiden voyage. On June 18, 2025, the "Kunming Dry Port" rail-road-sea intermodal international freight train departed from Kunming Anning, transporting goods via the China-Laos Railway and rail-road intermodal transport to Thailand’s Ranong Port, then onward by sea to Yangon, Myanmar.
Will the Western Line of the Trans-Asian Railway Be Replaced?
With the completion and operation of the China-Laos Railway and the slow progress of the China-Myanmar Railway, some scholars have suggested that as the China-Laos Railway opens and the China-Thailand Railway accelerates construction, the full operation and connectivity of the Trans-Asian Railway’s Central Line (China-Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore) has become a reality, and the market advantage of the China-Laos-Thailand railway corridor as a replacement for the China-Myanmar Railway corridor is becoming increasingly evident.
Taking the cargo shipped in this instance as an example, under the traditional model, the over 6,000-kilometer rail-sea transport from Kunming to Chittagong Port in Bangladesh involves rail transportation from Kunming to Qinzhou Port, followed by transshipment by sea via the Malacca Strait to Chittagong, taking nearly 40 days. The new route travels via the China-Laos Railway to Thailand’s Ranong Port for transshipment by sea, shortening the transportation distance by approximately 1,700 kilometers.
Efforts to advance the construction of the Trans-Asian Railway’s Western Line should continue. The expansion of China’s southward corridors must be considered in a balanced manner across the Eastern, Central, and Western Lines. This is of great significance for China’s economic cooperation with ASEAN, particularly in utilizing the southward corridor to open up an outlet to the Indian Ocean.
In fact, construction of the Dali-Ruili section of the China-Myanmar Railway within China is currently progressing at full speed. In June 2008, construction of the Dali-Baoshan section of the Dali-Ruili Railway commenced, and in 2022, the Dali-Baoshan section was opened to traffic. In 2015, construction of the Baoshan-Ruili section began, with work currently focused on the Gaoligong Mountain Tunnel, which is expected to be completed and open to traffic in 2028.
