page_title: Transport in Yunnan
section_title: Rail
hierarchical_section_title: Transport in Yunnan / Rail
caption_attribution_description: Kunming Railway Station
context_page_description: The transport infrastructure of Yunnan is served by numerous transport modes, and forms an integral part of the structure Yunnan Province and the Southwest of China. Yunnan is served by several civilian airports and a major highway and rail network. The province is served by a network of bus routes that radiates from the capital city, Kunming.
  Yunnan Province is large geographically and its transport hub is its capital, Kunming, which acts as an important gateway, linking China to Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. Most travelers travel by flight or bus. However, railway and river travel is also possible. Train travel requires much more time than air travel.
context_section_description: The first railway in Yunnan, the Kunming–Hanoi Railway (Sino-Vietnamese Railway), dates back to 1910. In 1941, American-supported construction began on the English Yunnan–Burma Railway, but this was aborted due to Japanese advances.  The building of railways in Yunnan is difficult due to rugged terrain locally and in neighboring provinces.  The rugged terrains requires rail lines to have extensive bridges and tunnels which adds to construction cost.  Yunnan is one of the poorest provinces in China and the construction of railways is capital intensive.  After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Yunnan Province has experienced two periods of railway construction—from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s and from the mid-1990s to the present, which have connected the province with the national rail network and expanded the provincial rail network.  At present, railways in operation in Yunnan include:
  Yunnan–Vietnam Railway 855 km (531 mi) including 466 km (290 mi) in Yunnan, completed in 1910
  Guiyang–Kunming Railway 640 km (398 mi), completed in 1966
  Chengdu–Kunming Railway 1,134 km (705 mi), completed in 1970
  Nanning–Kunming Railway 898.7 km (558 mi), completed in 1997
  Neijiang–Kunming Railway 872 km (542 mi), completed in parts in 1960, 1965 and 2001
  Pan County West Railway 136.3 km (85 mi), completed in part in 1975
  Kunming–Hekou line, consisting of the following sections:
  Kunming–Yuxi Railway 55.5 km (34 mi), completed in 1993
  Yuxi–Mengzi Railway 141 km (88 mi), completed in 2013
  Mengzi–Hekou Railway 140 km (87 mi), completed in 2014
  Guangtong–Dali Railway 213 km (132 mi), completed in 1998
  Dali–Lijiang Railway 165 km (103 mi), completed in 2009
  The current network is centered around Kunming and most extensive in eastern Yunnan with outlets to Guizhou and on to the Yangtze River valley and Guangxi and on to the South China coast.
  Since the late 1990s, the railway network in Yunnan has undergone considerable track upgrade and electrification to boost carrying capacity.  Expansion projects include:
  Lijiang–Shangri-La Railway from Lijiang to Shangri-La (Zhongdian), construction began in 2010.
  Yunnan to Guilin – construction to start next year and finish in 2015
  A rail line around Dianchi Lake: scheduled for completion in 2010
  Guangtong to Dali electrification
caption: Platforms of the Kunming Railway Station
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