Search China Travel News:

Information from the Yunnan Provincial Navigation Administrative Bureau shows that since China kicked off a regular international passenger line from Jinghong port, in Yunnan, to Thailand's Chiang Saen port in September, 2006, passenger load has surged in the Lancang- Mekong River. It is recorded that about 16,000 people traveled through the line in 2006, increasing by 90% from the previous year. A tourist route surrounding the border areas of China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand is taking shape. On a large perspective, an international golden tourist route has been formed in the region.

Extending 4,880 kilometers in length, the Lancang-Mekong River flows past through China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It is a river that passes through the largest number of countries in Asia.

People living on the banks of the river have their distinctive ethnic cultures and local customs, which are displayed in everything from the houses they live in to the clothes they wear. From the river origin to its estuary, the river covers almost all kinds of geographical features except desert. The rainforests along the river and the breathtaking natural scenery have make it a golden tourism route, which the expert Li Qingyou, director of the Tourism Bureau in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, says is both ideal for people to enjoy the ecological scene, ethnic cultures, and sightseeing, and to conduct scientific studies.

In order to make the river serve its people, China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand worked together and started to jointly explore the river two decades ago. Since the beginning of the 1990s, China has dug 260 kilometers of navigation channel at the section of the river in Yunnan Province. In 2001, a commercial navigation route traveling from Simao in Yunnan Province to Luangprabang, an ancient city of Laos, was officially opened. In 2006, the capacity along the Lancang-Mekong River was upgraded from the sixth to the fifth grade. Ships with a loading capacity below the 300-ton class can cruise the river throughout the year, said Qiao Xinmin, director of the Lancang River Navigation Affairs Bureau.

At present, tourist agencies in Yunnan have built seven large vessels for the river cruise, which contain altogether 500 cabins. By the end of this year, the express highway built from Kunming to Bangkok will be put to service. By then, a golden tour route will take shape along the border areas of China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, and tourists can travel to the Lancang-Mekong River by air, water, and land.