New HSR eyes linking Guangxi to Vietnam

Employees of China Railway No 4 Engineering Group work on the Pingxiang East railway station in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Thursday. LU YONGLONG/FOR CHINA DAILY

Qin Fenghua, a native of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was jubilant to know that a new high-speed railway linking regional capital Nanning and Pingxiang, which borders Vietnam, is almost ready.

Pingxiang, a county-level city under the prefecture-level city of Chongzuo, is to see the Chongzuo-Pingxiang HSR start operating by year-end, said Gong Hongyao, Party chief of the team from State builder China Railway No 4 Engineering Group.

By Thursday, three newly completed railway stations — Pingxiang East, Longzhou, and Ningming East — on the Chongzuo-Pingxiang HSR were ready for locomotive debugging and commissioning.

Qin was told that the Chongzuo-Pingxiang HSR, part of the railway linking Pingxiang with Nanning, can be extended to Vietnam down the road if conditions allow.

For this, she was extremely happy, as she once worked in Vietnam for over 10 years after graduating from college majoring in Vietnamese, and wants to see expanded bilateral trade and people-to-people exchanges.

Gong said this year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Vietnam, as well as the China-Vietnam Year of People-to-People Exchanges.

A joint declaration between China and Vietnam earlier this year reiterated a wish to better develop international railway intermodal transport, promote international intermodal passenger trains and open more cross-border trains between the two countries.

He added that the cross-border passenger transportation route from Nanning to Hanoi (Gia Lam) was resumed on May 25, opening a new chapter in friendly cooperation between China and Vietnam.

"If the railway can be truly interconnected, it will be more convenient for us to study and travel in China, or for Chinese friends to come to Vietnam," said a student studying at Hanoi University, surnamed Hoang, adding that the railway will not only save time, but also bring the people of the two countries closer.

Qin said she hopes the two countries can deepen cooperation in areas such as infrastructure construction, cross-border tourism and digital economy.

As the third self-invested HSR in Guangxi, the Chongzuo-Pingxiang HSR runs between Jiangzhou district under Chongzuo, and after traversing Chongzuo's Ningming and Longzhou counties in the west, continues regular service to Pingxiang.

With four stations — Chongzuo South, Ningming East, Longzhou and Pingxiang East — on the 81.52-kilometer line, 85.63 percent of the Chongzuo-Pingxiang HSR will be railway bridges and tunnels, Gong said.

Earlier, the Nanning-Chongzuo section of the Nanning-Pingxiang HSR was opened to service in December 2022, with Chongzuo South Station already in service.

Upon operation of the Chongzuo-Pingxiang section, Nanning and Pingxiang will be fully connected by a high-speed railway and reachable within an hour. Meanwhile, the western end of the entire line can link with Vietnam's Dong Dang-Hanoi Railway via the Hunan-Guangxi Railway, which connects Hunan's Hengyang with the Friendship Pass in Pingxiang, providing travelers with trips that go as far as Vientiane, Laos; Bangkok, Thailand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Singapore, Gong said.

Via the Nanning hub, the eastern end of the Chongzuo-Pingxiang HSR can join the existing Nanning-Guangzhou HSR, Liuzhou-Nanning intercity railway, Nanning-Kunming HSR and the Guiyang-Nanning HSR.

All these will help largely elevate the three-dimensional transport capacity of Guangxi in linking the country's eastern and western regions, and in connecting with ASEAN markets, Gong added.

Guangxi Communications Investment Group Corp Ltd, which invested in the Chongzuo-Pingxiang section, said the section costs some 14.52 billion yuan ($2.04 billion) to construct and was started in July 2022.