China-Laos Railway sees robust growth in cross-border trade

The China-Laos Railway has recorded robust growth in cross-border cargo trade, with its first-quarter value rising 62.7 percent year on year to 6.81 billion yuan (about 992 million U.S. dollars), a record high for the period.

From January to March this year, exports of photovoltaic products surged 43.2 times year on year to 1.19 billion yuan, while imports of fresh and dried fruits doubled to 500 million yuan, according to Kunming Customs in the border province of Yunnan in southwest China.

The railway is emerging as an efficient two-way corridor for "Chinese manufactured goods heading south and Southeast Asian specialties heading north", the customs noted.

Since its launch, the total value of imports and exports via the railway had exceeded 80 billion yuan as of Tuesday.

The railway now serves over 6,000 enterprises across China, with its trade influence extending to 19 countries and regions, including Laos and Thailand. The range of traded goods has expanded from around 500 categories at the start of operations to more than 3,800.

Kunming Customs has introduced various measures to facilitate border trade along the railway.

The China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, began operations in December 2021. The 1,035-km-long railway connects China's Kunming with Vientiane in Laos.

China-Laos Railway sees robust growth in cross-border trade

The three astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou-23 spaceship have entered the country's Tiangong space station and met with their astronaut colleagues early Monday morning, as they now begin an in-orbit crew handover.

Mission commander Zhu Yangzhu and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying successfully entered the station's core module Tianhe after the spaceship made a fast automated rendezvous and docked with the Tianhe module at 02:45 (Beijing Time) on Monday.

The three Shenzhou-21 crew members opened the hatch at 05:13 (Beijing Time) and greeted the new arrivals, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The six astronauts then took group pictures for the eighth in-orbit get-together in China's aerospace history.

Notably, one of the Shenzhou-23 crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

The Shenzhou-23 spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 23:08 (Beijing Time) on Sunday.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.

Shenzhou-23 astronauts enter Tiangong space station, meet Shenzhou-21 crew