The Gejiu-Bisezhai-Shiping Railway and the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway
The Gejiu-Bisezhai-Shiping Railway, together with the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, brought an end to the millennia-old history of human and horse-drawn transportation in Yunnan, becoming the most brilliant chapter in Yunnan’s modern history.
The Gejiu-Bisezhai-Shiping Railway was China’s first railway funded and operated by private businesses. It connects Gejiu, Bisezhai, Jianshui (formerly known as Lin’an), Shiping and other places, with a total length of approximately 182.5 kilometers and a 6-decimeter narrow gauge (narrow-gauge railway). It holds the distinctions of being the only private railway, the smallest railway, the one with the slowest trains, and the one with the most significant benefits in China.
The Yunnan-Vietnam Railway is a railway in Southeast Asia that connects Kunming, China, and Haiphong Port, Vietnam (via Hekou, a China-Vietnam border port). As the first railway in southwest China, it runs in a north-south direction. It is one of the earlier railways built in China and also the longest 1-meter narrow-gauge railway in the country. A century ago, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway was the only transportation “artery” in Yunnan; it was also the first railway in southwest China and was known as the world’s third-largest project comparable to the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.
Gejiu
Gejiu is the starting point of the Gejiu-Bisezhai-Shiping Railway (a 6-decimeter narrow-gauge railway). The large quantities of tin produced in Gejiu were transported from Gejiu to Bisezhai, then transloaded onto meter-gauge trains and shipped to Haiphong via the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. From Haiphong, the tin was transported by water to Hong Kong, and finally sold to various parts of the world. (“When the train whistles, a fortune arrives.”)
Bisezhai
Bisezhai is the intersection of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and the Gejiu-Bisezhai-Shiping Railway, as well as a crucial hub for collecting and distributing materials for Yunnan’s import and export trade. Materials from southern Yunnan had to be concentrated here to be exported, while foreign goods were declared to customs, transshipped here, and then distributed to the interior. Therefore, it served as a material collection and distribution center and a trade hub, and was known as the “Little Hong Kong” .
Jijie
Jijie was an important central hub station of the Gejiu-Bisezhai-Shiping Railway. It extended eastward to Mengzi, southward to Gejiu, westward to Jianshui and Shiping, and connected northward to the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, providing access to Kaiyuan and Kunming. In 1970, the 6-decimeter narrow-gauge section of the railway from Jijie to Shiping underwent a gauge-widening renovation and was converted to meter-gauge. After connecting with the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, Jijie Station became a railway station where both meter-gauge and 6-decimeter narrow-gauge trains operated simultaneously.
Kaiyuan
It is located in the middle of the Yunnan section of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and serves as a crucial logistics support center. Kaiyuan is known as the “city brought by trains”.
Hekou
It is the starting station of the Yunnan section of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. Trains coming from the south cross the China-Vietnam border bridge and arrive here first when entering Chinese territory.
Shiping
Jianshui
Some of the photos on this page are sourced from the internet.