Kunming–Hai Phong Railway

The Yunnan - Yunnan railway or train ( French Le chemin de fer du Yunnan; Chinese滇越铁路/滇越铁路, Pinyin Dian - Yue Tielu; Vietnamese Tuyen đường satellite Haiphong - Vân Nam ) is a French under the colonial administration in the years 1901 to 1910 built railway line, which connects the Vietnamese port city of Haiphong in Tonkin, the northern part of Vietnam, with Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province.

History

The meter gauge line was opened on 31 March 1910 and has a length of 855 km (of which 465 km in China), it crosses 173 bridges ( including 107 bridges in China) and passes through 158 tunnels ( of which 155 tunnels in China). It surmounts more than 1,900 meters in altitude. A special highlight is the reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower so-called human bridge. Your steel supports were prepared by the selfsame company that had supplied the steel beams for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In its form of construction, the bridge resembles the Chinese character for ' Human-人'.

Due to a railway concession agreement with the Chinese Empire, the French began in 1901 as consul Auguste François procured permission from the Vietnamese- Chinese border town of Lao Cai from its construction, which took place under very great difficulties, because you had to overcome big mountains and deep valleys.

At least 12,000 of the 60,000 local workers and about 80 of the European subcontractors died during the construction of the railway, many from malaria. In recent years, the poor condition of the track on the Chinese side increasingly vulnerable to rail traffic.

Presence

For safety reasons, the passenger on the Chinese stretch was set in 2003. By 2015, the Chinese government wants to build a new standard gauge line from Kunming to the Vietnamese border.

Built in 1907-1908 Wujiazhai Railway Bridge ( Wujiazhai tieluqiao ) in the Autonomous District Pingbian the Miao (屏边 县) is on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China ( 6-1053 ) since 2006.