page_title: Rail transport in China
section_title: Vietnam
hierarchical_section_title: Rail transport in China / International linkages / Current and past links / Vietnam
caption_attribution_description: On the Dong Dang to Hanoi portion of the Beijing to Hanoi service. The freight loco is a GE D10. The line from Dong Dang is dual gauge and hosts a daily thru standard gauge passenger train from Nanning China.
context_page_description: Rail transport is an important mode of long-distance transportation in China. As of 2015, the country has 121,000 km of railways, the second longest network in the world. By the end of 2018, China had 29,000 kilometres of high-speed rail, the longest HSR network in the world.
  Almost all rail operations are handled by the China State Railway Group Company, Limited, a state-owned company created in March 2013 from dissolution of the Ministry of Railways. It was converted into a joint-stock company and placed under the control of the Ministry of Finance in June 2019.
  China's railways are among the busiest in the world. In 2019, railways in China delivered 3.660 billion passenger trips, generating 1,470.66 billion passenger-kilometres and carried 4.389 billion tonnes of freight, generating 3,018 billion cargo tonne-kilometres. Freight traffic turnover has increased more than fivefold over the period 1980-2013 and passenger traffic turnover has increased more than sevenfold over the same period.
context_section_description: There are two rail connections between China and Vietnam, at the Friendship Pass and Hekou.  At the Friendship Pass on the border between Pingxiang, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Đồng Đăng in Vietnam's Lạng Sơn Province, the Hunan–Guangxi Railway connects to the dual gauge Hanoi-Đồng Đăng Line.  The crossing, opened in 1955, has displaced the older Hekou crossing as the primary rail link between the two countries.  There are twice weekly trains from Beijing to Hanoi and both traverse the Friendship Pass.  The trains consist of a typical T style Chinese express from Beijing to Đồng Đăng. The train may require passengers to detrain in Nanning for 5 hours (especially on the northbound service); a lounge area with reclining chairs is available for Soft Sleeper passengers.
  At Hekou, the narrow-gauge Kunming–Hai Phong Railway from Kunming, in Yunnan Province crosses into Vietnam's Lao Cai Province.  This line, also known as the Yunnan–Vietnam Railway, was built by France from 1904 to 1910 though rugged terrain.  Cross-border service on this line ceased in late 2000, but freight trains have kept this crossing operational.
caption: Dual gauge tracks at Đồng Đăng in Vietnam accommodates both metre gauge trains from Hanoi and standard gauge trains from Nanning and other cities in China.
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