How I got attached to Kunming-Bangkok Expressway
Li Hongfeng
I became attached to the Kunming-Bangkok Expressway because of an interview ten years ago. That day, I was assigned to interview a self-driving business delegation that was coming all the way from Bangkok to Kunming. They are called Kunming-Bangkok Expressway Business Delegation. That was how I first learnt about the Kunming-Bangkok Expressway.
At that time, the road was not an expressway and we would meet the delegation in Mohan, a small Chinese town at the China-Laos border where the Kunming-Bangkok Expressway runs through.
When the time approached, we drove from Kunming to Mohan. During the long ride, many of us suffered from carsickness and threw up all the way. One of my colleagues joked: Now you know what the Kunming-Bangkok Road is like? The hardships on the tour reminded me of a poem by Li Bai, an ancient Chinese poet, in which he claimed that the difficulty of taking the Sichuan road was like climbing to the blue sky. Truly enough, the difficulty of travelling the Kunming-Bangkok Road is as difficult as climbing to the blue sky.
Nevertheless, when the business delegation came in China from Laos Boten, we are shocked for their cars and even windshields are covered with mud... we felt the delegation was more like an expedition motorcade. It turned out that they had struggled through mountains on narrow and bumpy roads. On some rivers, there werent any bridges and they had to take the ferry boat. Some roads were so difficult that they not only used anti-skid equipment but also employed a racing driver to lead the way.
The Chinese section of the Road was much better. However, when they drove on the winding mountain road in Mengla County of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, many Thai drivers still threw up all the way. Despite all these difficulties, they finally arrived in Kunming.
A few years ago, I interviewed an international forum of the Greater Mekong subregion held in Jinghong City of Xinshuangbanna Prefecture to cover the Kunming-Bangkok Road a second time. We drove southwards from Kunming to Jinghong and found the road condition was much better. We met some Thai reporters who had come to the forum on a cargo ship on the Mekong. When asked why they did not take the Kunming-Bangkok Road, one of them said with a wry smile: The Lao section was not yet completed and it was inconvenient to take the ferry boat; the cargo ship was faster. Then he made a gesture across the chest saying: I hope that next time when we meet, I can drive directly to Jinghong from Bangkok.
When one has kind wishes, heaven allows them to come true. 3 years ago, my colleagues and I attended a press conference in Bangkok. After the press conference, we drove northwards from Bangkok to Kunming along the Kunming-Bangkok Expressway together with several reporters of Bangkok TV. With the joint efforts of China, Laos and Thailand, the road condition was much better this time. On the way, I saw vehicles bearing license plates from different Chinese provinces speeding by our car to the south.
When we came to the Honghe Bridge in Yuxi, Yunnan, all Thai reporters parked their cars for a glimpse of the highest bridge in Asia. I heard an anchorwoman from Bangkok TV speaking into the microphone: This is really a miracle. It seems that such a miracle can only happen in a country like China. When people were united as one, despite all difficulties the highest bridge in Asia has been built with huge investment.
Later, I found that the Kunming-Bangkok expressway has brought great benefits for people in the countries and regions along the way: the Thai and Lao people are now full of hope for exchanges and cooperation with China; more Chinese self-driving tourists and Yunnan flowers can be seen in Bangkok; mangosteen, longan, rambutan and other tropical fruits from Thailand have found their way to the tables of Kunming and Chinese people.
