China-Vietnam rail links have been reported on extensively.
Chinese Rail Transport Appreciation & News
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China-Vietnam rail links have been reported on extensively.
I was just about to post the news
But Vietnam's HSR seems quite messy. It'll be built, but China's involvement still remains to be seen
Yeah, mostly because money. And the south is not friendly with any China involved. Fun fact there should be railways link Ho Chi Minh city to Bavet Cambodia through my home province with mean can connect China to Cambodia but nothing is planned/heard.
well the extension of standard gauge from China into norther Vietnam is already underway since late last year, to be complete by 2030. it becomes inevitable for northern Vietnam's economy to become integrated with China rather than southern Vietnam, as it becomes comparatively more convenient to move people and goods northward.
But in the long run, Vietnam's ambition surely is to integrate its regions through a north-south rail corridor. it remains to be seen who will spearhead this project, but i suspect at this scale only China can do it at an acceptable price. the fact that Tho Lam took HSR from Beijing to Guangxi is a political signal that should not be missed.
Vietnam already launched the first leg of building of her first high speed rail a few days ago, led by German Siemens . Vietnamese leaders are very good in balancing out different powers for their own interests, yet hostile to known, which is how middle powers should behave .
At least the Germans have agreed to transfer technology and training in the contract , seems vietnams wants to acquire the capabilities to be able to do it themselves after this stage, which is a smart move. Remains to be seen if it will successful
I’m actually impressed at the speed the country is now growing at(I have been there myself a year ago), I think they will be the next Asian tiger this coming decades . The leadership has a vision and they have learned the right lessons from China as well.
Just to expand on this. It's only 350km from Hanoi to Nanning, which is the capital of Guangxi province with 50 million people. So trains and trucks can make a return trip within a single day.
In comparison, the Hanoi to Saigon journey is 5x longer
If you look at a map, this line is by no means a critical line, it goes from Hanoi to some peripheral province, it is not integral to the north south corridor.
By your logic of "balancing", it actually makes it more likely that China will get the bigger prize, which is the railway linking Hanoi and Haiphon with China. If one segment is given to Siemens, surely others should be given to the Chinese or Japanese in order to get a good comparison of all of their technology.
But ultimately, regardless of who is building, the greatest impact here is the rail connection with China. Standard gauge is standard gauge regardless of its builder, and the economic impact goes far beyond the revenue from the rail line.
Not quite. Rail signaling system and power transmission systems need to be compatible.
The prospects for Vietnam's North-South high-speed rail project are bleak.
The project itself is extremely costly, and Vietnam faces significant obstacles in terms of financing. In addition, Vietnam also requires technology transfer. I can understand Vietnam's considerations in doing so, but Vietnam has clearly overestimated the attractiveness of its domestic market.
Vietnam believes it can replicate China's approach when it introduced high-speed rail, but it ignores the difference in scale. China imported hundreds of high-speed trains in exchange for technology transfer, while Vietnam's total need for high-speed train sets is probably only one or two hundred. Demanding complete technology transfer under these circumstances is simply wishful thinking.
A railway connection with China would be a tremendous opportunity for Vietnam, but irrelevant to China.
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Photos taken on April 24, 2026 shows a China-Europe freight train departing from the Xi'an International Port Station in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The Xi'an International Port Station has handled over 2,000 China-Europe freight train trips this year. The total freight volume transported has exceeded 2.1 million tonnes in this period. (All photos by Xinhua/Zou Jingyi)