First rail link in 'great artery'

China, Thailand to collaborate on major train project to boost regional development

Chiang Rak Noi Station, about 50 kilometers north of Bangkok, was filled with the sound of music on Saturday, as Thai and Chinese dancers performed to mark the launch of an ambitious railway project.

China and Thailand have agreed to jointly build a 845-kilometer rail link that will not only upgrade the Southeast Asian country's aging rail network, but also will form part of a wider plan to create a rail corridor running from Kunming, in China's southern Yunnan province, through the entire Indochina Peninsula.