Landlocked at the crossroads of China, Southeast Asia and South Asia, Kunming first gained international attention as the terminus of an ambitious French rail project connecting French Indochina with Yunnan.

Back then it might not have been difficult to imagine a pan-Asian rail network centered upon the city, but the turbulence of the 20th Century fragmented the continent, impeding the flow of people and goods across borders.

In recent decades relations among Asian countries have experienced a general thawing and once again, rail transport is bringing Kunming's crossroads status into international focus. But this time around it is high-speed rail rather than the locomotive that will drive Kunming's resurgence as a transport hub.

Within a decade, Kunming will be at the center of a high-speed rail network that extends westward across India and Pakistan to Iran, southward to Singapore on the South China Sea, eastward to Xiamen and Shanghai on the Chinese coast and northward to Chengdu – if Beijing has its way.

After India's decision last year to pull out of the plan to rebuild the Stilwell Road connecting northeast India with Kunming, it may be surprising to learn that Beijing and New Delhi are discussing a Chinese-built high-speed rail line crossing. The Hindu reports:


It appears that the long-planned rail network connecting Kunming with Singapore via cities in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia will also be a high-speed rail network, according to Chinese media.

Since beginning to develop its domestic high-speed rail network, China has begun to market its growing prowess in the industry to other countries. State-owned Chinese companies are already involved in projects in Venezuela and Turkey and Chinese companies plan on bidding for upcoming high-speed rail project tenders in the United States.

China recently announced its intention to build a high-speed rail link between Beijing and London. Chinese officials are predicting the completion of a China-built Eurasian high-speed rail network by as early as 2025.

On the domestic front, a new dedicated high-speed passenger line from Kunming to Shanghai is under construction and expected to be completed by 2015. The new route, which will run through provincial capitals Guiyang, Changsha, Nanchang and Hangzhou, will cut travel time from about 37 hours to around 10 hours.

Plans also exist to upgrade existing tracks between Kunming and Chengdu and build a new direct line to Chongqing that will deliver passengers from Kunming in about three hours instead of the current 19-plus hours.

Finally, construction commenced on a high-speed line from Kunming to Nanning last December. There has been some recent speculation that this line will eventually extend to Xiamen, and even Taiwan via tunnel.

China plans on having 42 high-speed rail lines by 2012, covering 13,000 kilometers, which would make it the world's largest rail network of its kind. The new lines will use China's homegrown high-speed rail system, which is a mix of foreign locomotive and carriage technology and domestically designed switching and control systems that is capable of speeds up to 350 km/hour (217 mph).

For the last decade, the elephant in the living room of China's relationships with the countries through which the Mekong River flows has been the growing number of dams built on and planned for the Lancang River – as the Mekong's headwaters in Yunnan are known.

The river - which in February was at half its normal level for that month - is a source of food and livelihood for the 65 million people living in its basin in Yunnan, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

On Monday, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva met with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue, telling Hu that residents of the lower Mekong region were concerned about the river's recent low water levels and were uneasy regarding the lack of clear information about China's dams on the Lancang, according to a Nation report.

Despite Abhisit's polite request for better information, Thai officials came to China's defense, saying that the recent low levels in the lower Mekong basin – the lowest in half a century – were primarily due to a drought in Laos. Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said that rain in Laos normally accounts for 35 percent of the Mekong's water supply and that only four percent of the river's total water was held behind Chinese dams.

China currently has three dams operating on the Lancang, with a fourth at Xiaowan scheduled to commence operation in 2012. If completed, the Xiaowan hydropower station will be the world's tallest dam, rising almost 300 meters and capable of retaining 15 billion cubic meters of water.

Plans for a protest outside the Chinese embassy in Bangkok next month by residents of the northern Thai city of Chiang Rai suggest that residents of China's neighbors downstream may become increasingly vocal about the impact they feel Chinese dams are having on the river.

The Bangkok protest will be timed to coincide with the first Mekong River Summit, organized by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and scheduled to be held in the Thai beach town of Hua Hin from April 2 to April 5.

The conference's theme, "Transboundary water resources management in a changing world" is slightly undermined by the fact that the MRC's membership only includes Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, with Myanmar and China only participating as "dialogue partners".

It is difficult to imagine China making concessions to protestors, governments or anyone else for the time being. The Bangkok Post is reporting that a letter sent last month to Yunnan Governor Qin Guangrong by the Chiang Rai provincial government demanding the release of water from Lancang River dams was rebuked by Qin, who said the water was needed in Yunnan for agriculture during the dry season.

In addition to the protest related to the Mekong's current low levels, some Thai villagers will also attempt to deliver a petition to China seeking compensation for flooding in 2008:


In May 2009, the United Nations said China's plans to eventually build eight dams on the Lancang "may pose the single greatest threat to the river". China, however, is not the only country building dams on the river. Laos has plans for 23 dams on Mekong tributaries and the Mekong itself to be finished in the coming year, with Vietnam and Cambodia also planning dams of their own.

Lancang River image: news.china.com.cn

Yunnan drought damage intensifying
The rain and snow that fell across northern Yunnan last week was not nearly enough to relieve the record drought that has left Yunnan with countless water shortages, forest fires, and failed crops. Government projections now have the drought lasting into early summer.

Estimates now stand at almost six million people and 3.6 million livestock in Yunnan lacking normal access to water—including 1.8 million people in the Kunming area alone—along with 2.5 million hectares of cropland affected. The number of people lacking normal access to drinking water could rise to nearly eight million in March without further rain.

The drought is now also affecting shipping traffic on the Mekong River.

After years of Chinese civil engineering projects such as dredging channels and blasting shoals, the upper Mekong River, known in Yunnan as the Lancang River, has become a major freight conduit between China, Laos, and Thailand, carrying oil shipments and other cargo up and down the river.

Reuters is reporting that the river is at half of its usual level for this time of year and China has halted the operation of 21 Chinese boats and stopped issuing border crossing permits to cargo boats seeking to enter China from the south.

Additionally, the drought has hit Yunnan and neighboring Guangxi's sugar farmers hard, leading to a 12 percent decrease in national sugar production for this growing season compared to last year. This development could drive up national prices if China begins to import more sugar.

Kunming apartment rents rising fast
If it seems that your landlord is trying to bleed you dry when you re-sign your lease this year, you might take consolation in the fact that other renters across Kunming are being similarly squeezed.

According to a Xinhua Net article, rental prices for small-sized family dwellings in the downtown area have increased by 10 to 15 percent in recent weeks as a surge of outside workers return to Kunming from Spring Festival vacations and a new crop of college graduates begins to flood the rental market.

The increase comes on the heels of rising prices last year.

Viewing China's stimulus package through Chenggong
A Financial Times article that appeared on Sunday used the example of Kunming's Chenggong new area to examine whether rapid development, China's economic stimulus package, and property speculation have caused a national property bubble.

The article focuses on the breakneck pace of residential construction in Chenggong, which for the moment is home to row upon row of mostly uninhabited apartment blocks and other buildings.

Kunming, however, has a rapidly growing population and very little space remaining around the original city center. With government offices and universities preparing to relocate there, it is difficult to imagine Chenggong remaining a ghost town for long.

Image: Sina News

Last Friday while much of the world was nursing the hangover of a decade of war and terrorism, economic turmoil and environmental degradation, China and its Southeast Asian neighbors took a big step toward regional integration with the launch of a new free trade area (FTA). The long term implications for Yunnan are massive.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have now entered the first phase of an FTA, eliminating tariffs on around 7,000 items including fruits, vegetables, textiles and machinery. These goods represent roughly 90 percent of trade in the new economic bloc, which is the world's largest in terms of population and third-largest after the EU and NAFTA in terms of GDP.

The first phase includes China and the more developed ASEAN members: Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. On Friday these countries also launched the first phase of an FTA within ASEAN itself. The remaining members – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam – will join the ASEAN China FTA in 2015.

Although it does not directly border any of the first phase countries, Yunnan has much to gain from the FTA's launch. It has water, air and highway connections to Thailand plus air links to Malaysia and Singapore, all of which are expected to become even busier trade routes. The launch of the FTA has long been viewed as a major milepost in the rise of Yunnan as China's gateway to Southeast Asia.

As some observers note, the FTA is more than just a step toward trade integration, it is also a major strategic achievement for China, whose political power in Southeast Asia already greatly surpasses that of regional rival India and is also seriously challenging American influence in the region.

China's soft power in Southeast Asia will undoubtedly grow in step with trade within the FTA, and much of this influence will be projected from Yunnan.

In the coming decade, China and Southeast Asia will become increasingly connected by a vast network of highways and rail which will provide cities in Yunnan with cheap overland access to markets in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Seated at the northern end of this transport web, Yunnan is poised to become an increasingly important international trade hub.

The initiation of the ASEAN China FTA is a modern revival of the ancient tea and horse caravan routes from centuries ago known as the South Silk Road, which linked China with Southeast Asian markets as well as Tibet and India.

Total trade between China and Southeast Asia was US$100 billion in 2004 and US$231 billion in 2008, but this is just the beginning. Bilateral trade – much of which will be passing through Yunnan – is expected to double over the next decade.

Difficult as it may be to imagine, Yunnan's days as an economic and political backwater are officially over.

Deteriorating relations between Thailand and Cambodia have brought the fate of the eastern line of the proposed Trans-Asian railway which would link Kunming with Singapore into doubt, according to a Phnom Penh Post report citing Thai and Cambodian sources.

A six-kilometer section of track that would link Aranyaphrathet in Thailand with Sisophon in Cambodia may not be built, which would be a major blow to the 5,300 kilometer regional rail network. It is this section that would act as a linchpin, connecting all existing railway networks in the vicinity.

The never-easy relationship between Thailand and Cambodia has become increasingly tense in recent weeks.

In November Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen angered the current Thai government by offering deposed Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra a home and an economic advisor post in the Cambodian government after refusing an extradition request by Bangkok, where he is supposed to serve two years in prison for corruption. The Thai government under Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has interpreted this as criticism of its judicial system.

Since Cambodia's refusal to extradite Shinawatra, both countries have recalled their ambassadors from each other's capitals and a Thai citizen has been arrested in Cambodia for spying.

This is the lowest point in relations between the two countries since Shinawatra's days in power in 2003, when rumors that a Thai actress had claimed that Cambodian icon Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand resulted in mob violence aimed at the Thai embassy and Thai-owned businesses in Phnom Penh.

One day later the Cambodian embassy was damaged in an attack by a crowd in Bangkok. Diplomatic relations between the countries were suspended for three months afterward.

Adding to the drama is the fact that Shinawatra still holds much influence on the Thai side of the border, where he is still popular in rural regions. On top of that, consummate political survivor Hun Sen, who has been a mainstay of Cambodian politics since the days of the Khmer Rouge, is much more adept at political brinkmanship than Thailand's Vejjajiva.

There has been no word from Bangkok or Phnom Penh that either country has decided to scrap plans for the Aranyaprathet-Sisophon link. Were one country to withdraw from the plan, the rail link between Cambodia and Vietnam – and the rest of the rail network – would become unviable to governments and lenders, according to experts familiar with the project.

A nearly monthlong conflict between Myanmar's army and ethnic fighters has led to what may be more than 20,000 refugees in an information dead zone, with foreign journalists being ordered out of the area, according to a New York Times article.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that as many as 30,000 refugees have crossed the border into China since fighting between the Myanmar army and an alliance of four area ethnic groups known as the Myanmar Peace and Democracy Front (MPDF) broke out on August 8 in the Kokang region of northeastern Myanmar's Shan State.

China's Foreign Ministry said it was providing humanitarian assistance to the refugees, many of whom are Chinese businesspeople. At present, China's plans for dealing with the remaining refugees have yet to be made public. The government is also declining to comment on the current state of affairs in the several refugee camps in the towns of Nansan and Genma, located in Yunnan's Lincang prefecture.

China is one of the few Asian countries to have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, which codified non-refoulement, or the principle of refusing to send refugees to places where they are likely to be under threat again.

It is estimated that approximately 4,000 refugees have returned to Myanmar since fighting ceased two days ago.

Media in Thailand are reporting that Myanmar's ruling junta has sent troop reinforcements into Shan State for the purpose of consolidating control over the region – a move that could provoke more violence between Myanmar soldiers and ethnic militias and worsen the refugee situation.

Nansan refugee camp image: Reuters via New York Times

Pollution in the Mekong River has been blamed by an international conservation group for a downward trend in the river's population of Irrawaddy dolphins, which is rapidly approaching annihilation, according to an AFP report.

More than 50 dolphin calves that have died since 2003 have been found with toxic levels of pollutants including mercury and pesticides, The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said in a press conference Wednesday.

At present there are between 64 and 76 Mekong Irrawaddy dolphins remaining in a 190 kilometer stretch of the Mekong shared by Cambodia and Laos.

A spokesman for the global environmental organization said the pollution could be coming from multiple sources upriver. Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Yunnan are all upstream from the section of the Mekong inhabited by the dolphins.

The WWF said it is investigating the source of the contamination.

A report published by the United Nations said that plans to dam the Mekong in Yunnan, where it is known as the Lancang River, may pose the single greatest threat to the river's ecological survival. Yunnan is also a major exporter of fertilizers and pesticides to neighboring countries on the Mekong.

The announcement that the Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin was on the verge of becoming extinct illustrates how quickly fortunes can change for endangered species. As recently as 2007, when there were 160 Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong, there was optimism about the animal's survival chances, with some experts anticipating a population boom.

Image: touraroundcambodia.com

Engineers from China and Australia are preparing to commence work on the last remaining stretch of track of the east trunk line of the Trans-Asian Railway, which will link Kunming and Singapore via Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, according to a Voice of America report.

The missing link in this rail line is Cambodia, which needs to upgrade hundreds of kilometers of colonial-era lines plus build a new east line to Vietnam in order to connect stations in China and Vietnam with Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

If Asian Development Bank (ADB) projections hold true, this section of the Trans-Asian Railway could be sending travelers and freight between Kunming and Singapore within two years, the report said.

The Cambodian government has split the job in two, with the contract for the west line - consisting of old lines originally built by the French - going to Australia's Toll Holdings. This line will connect Phnom Penh with Thailand and will also dip southward to the port city of Sihanoukville, one of the largest ports in the Gulf of Thailand.

China Railway Group holds the contract for carrying out a feasibility study to link Phnom Penh with Vietnam to the east through a 255-kilometer rail line passing through the Cambodian border town of Snoul, the report said. It was only last year that Cambodia and Vietnam signed an agreement that will allow their respective rail networks to connect.

Analysts believe that completion of the Cambodia section will provide a major boost to Cambodia's economy and its role within the region. In addition to multitudes of tourists, trains traveling the Trans-Asian Railway are expected to transport large amounts of bulk freight such as rice.

As with most large infrastructure projects in Asia, resettlement of people living along the proposed route is a variable that will determine when the project is completed. An ADB official said he expects the resettlement issue to be resolved without major difficulty, in which case travelers may be taking trains between Kunming and Singapore within two years.