Not just tourism as indeed the last few allinea say. Besides Kunming is near the Indian ocean so import and export will also be important with other countries beside those mentioned.
Chinese Economics Thread
- Thread starter Norfolk
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Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
But there is no road or railway connecting Kunming to Indian Ocean. Plan is afoot to build rail track across Myanmar but it is held up due to insurrection and Myanmar ability to pay.
There is pipeline connection Yunnan to Kyukpu port I wish they built road or rail line parallel to the oil pipe
But this new rail line will spur development in Yunnan and Guizhou because people can easily travel now at low cost to the richer Yangzhe river delta area. Also give access to landlocked Laos when the new railway connecting Yunnan to Vientiane built in 3 years
Jura The idiot
General
Jura The idiot
General
I knew it wasn't near
but still was a little bit surprised to see how far it actually is (about 1100 km straight line):
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
I knew it wasn't near
Yes it is very long line and It was built to mitigate the danger of Malacca strait blockade.
It is very rough terrain with difficult access to the construction side. I guess they must have some kind of dirt road
Actually the closest route to Sea is Yunnan Haiphong in Vietnam. the French built a railway from Kunming to Haiphong in late 19th century. A fascinating story how one frenchman manage to get the Qing approval to built the line see video bleow but unfortunately in German.delft should have no problem here as Dutch is close enough to German.
But this line is narrow gauge and old it is still function once a week as freighter train.
It was destroy during brief China Vietnam war but recently it was repaired and put back into service
The Chinese built a modern line parallel to this line ended up in border town Laochai. Unfortunately geopolitics prevent to be completed as Vietnam is wary of China
Last edited:
Jura The idiot
General
... so they're like Chinese backup lines? until now I would've thought they had been for local oil/gas to be sent to China (I've been aware of former Burma being oil/gas exporter) ... but no, it wouldn't make sense to end them where they're ended
(I guess the main oil-fields are inland:and the main gas-fields to the south:
just thinking aloud ...)
but what do I know about Myanmar anyway? LOL
I know. It must be as far as from here to Milan. But China just opened a high speed railway line that is twice as long.I knew it wasn't near
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Most of the oil and gas come from Mid East. They built bunkering port at Kyaukpyu for that purpose. The purpose is to provide Yunnan & Guizhou landlocked provinces with oil They built new refinery in Kunming. Trucking oil product from east is expensive. An added benefit is circumspect the Malacca straits
With Oil And Gas Pipelines, China Takes A Shortcut Through Myanmar
On the 29th of January, China opened, with little fanfare, a new oil link through Myanmar. Despite its low profile, this project has clearly been a huge undertaking, both technologically and politically. This 2,400km long pipeline runs through some of the most rugged areas on the planet, marked by jagged hills and ridges and dense jungle. On top of that, two stretches of the pipeline traverse two of Southeast Asia’s political hotspots, the Rakhine and Shan States, which retain semi-autonomous armies that have only just recently been nominally pacified.
The new route however, has one invaluable advantage in eyes of Chinese leaders: it bypasses the Malacca straits, whose infamous waters are infested with pirates. A 300,000 ton super tanker recently discharged its oil at the new deepwater port located on Maday Island—the first time this had happened—marking the start of new pipeline’s operation. That oil will now flow to Kunming, the capital of the southeast Chinese province of Yunnan, which borders Myanmar. The pipeline shortens the distance the oil will have to travel by sea to reach China by 700 miles. It also cuts by 30% the time this liquid black gold will take to get to the Middle Kingdom.
(Image: Shwe Gas Movement)
Avoiding the Malacca detour had the other, even more invaluable advantage in the eyes of the Chinese leadership. With 80% of all imported hydrocarbons to China going through the Malacca sea-route, China is vulnerable to having its overseas energy supplies blockaded by the American 6thFleet during a Sino-U.S. geopolitical crisis. The Burmese pipeline diminishes that risk, as the oil and natural gas will no long have to pass through the Malacca Straits chokepoint.
Parallel to the oil pipeline of Maday, another link has been functioning since October last, from the sea port of Kyaukpyu, which is dedicated to methane. This pipeline has already transported to China four billion cubic meters of methane from both Burmese and Middle Eastern (Qatari) sources.
The $2.5 billion invested into the pipeline have been entirely covered by the giant state-owned oil company, China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), which owns this key infrastructure. But the project has not gained acceptance from all of the concerned parties. The Burmese locals have resented what they see as inadequate compensation for the expropriation of farmers affected by the building of the pipeline. They also resent the fact that almost all of these riches associated with the project are heading to China through their territory, depriving Myanmar of any gains from this potentially valuable development tool. Others lament the limited effort to protect the environment during the pipeline’s construction. But all of these hard feelings disappeared once China promised to hand over a total of 53 billion dollars in royalties in 30 years to the government of Myanmar. And the local Myanmar armed factions were pacified by $25 million in schooling and other social development projects. Some 10% of the gas is supposed to stay in Burma, but none of the oil, as the refining facility will be built in Kunming, at the end of the line, with a capacity of 10 million of tons of crude oil.
With Oil And Gas Pipelines, China Takes A Shortcut Through Myanmar
On the 29th of January, China opened, with little fanfare, a new oil link through Myanmar. Despite its low profile, this project has clearly been a huge undertaking, both technologically and politically. This 2,400km long pipeline runs through some of the most rugged areas on the planet, marked by jagged hills and ridges and dense jungle. On top of that, two stretches of the pipeline traverse two of Southeast Asia’s political hotspots, the Rakhine and Shan States, which retain semi-autonomous armies that have only just recently been nominally pacified.
The new route however, has one invaluable advantage in eyes of Chinese leaders: it bypasses the Malacca straits, whose infamous waters are infested with pirates. A 300,000 ton super tanker recently discharged its oil at the new deepwater port located on Maday Island—the first time this had happened—marking the start of new pipeline’s operation. That oil will now flow to Kunming, the capital of the southeast Chinese province of Yunnan, which borders Myanmar. The pipeline shortens the distance the oil will have to travel by sea to reach China by 700 miles. It also cuts by 30% the time this liquid black gold will take to get to the Middle Kingdom.
(Image: Shwe Gas Movement)
Avoiding the Malacca detour had the other, even more invaluable advantage in the eyes of the Chinese leadership. With 80% of all imported hydrocarbons to China going through the Malacca sea-route, China is vulnerable to having its overseas energy supplies blockaded by the American 6thFleet during a Sino-U.S. geopolitical crisis. The Burmese pipeline diminishes that risk, as the oil and natural gas will no long have to pass through the Malacca Straits chokepoint.
Parallel to the oil pipeline of Maday, another link has been functioning since October last, from the sea port of Kyaukpyu, which is dedicated to methane. This pipeline has already transported to China four billion cubic meters of methane from both Burmese and Middle Eastern (Qatari) sources.
The $2.5 billion invested into the pipeline have been entirely covered by the giant state-owned oil company, China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), which owns this key infrastructure. But the project has not gained acceptance from all of the concerned parties. The Burmese locals have resented what they see as inadequate compensation for the expropriation of farmers affected by the building of the pipeline. They also resent the fact that almost all of these riches associated with the project are heading to China through their territory, depriving Myanmar of any gains from this potentially valuable development tool. Others lament the limited effort to protect the environment during the pipeline’s construction. But all of these hard feelings disappeared once China promised to hand over a total of 53 billion dollars in royalties in 30 years to the government of Myanmar. And the local Myanmar armed factions were pacified by $25 million in schooling and other social development projects. Some 10% of the gas is supposed to stay in Burma, but none of the oil, as the refining facility will be built in Kunming, at the end of the line, with a capacity of 10 million of tons of crude oil.
Jura The idiot
General
cool, I was almost two years behind though
"your" article
is dated Feb 9, 2015
谢谢
Dutch is not near enough to German but I happen to know German, having learned in secondary school, badly, and needing it when crossing the border to Germany which I do quite often.
China is now concerned in replacing meter gauge and Cape gauge railways in Africa with standard gauge as well as trying to persuade Pakistan to convert to standard gauge and pushing a standard gauge railway through Laos into Thailand. I can well imagine that the Yunnan line will be considered quite inadequate.