China-Laos Railway facilitates int'l travel for China-South Asia Expo participants

KUNMING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Muhammad Fazle Rabby from Bangladesh was impressed by the convenience of the China-Laos Railway during his trip to participate in the China-South Asia Exposition that kicked off Wednesday in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

"The China-Laos Railway is expected to serve as a bridge to connect China and Laos, and the grand gathering of the China-South Asia Expo will see more fruitful results," he said.

Scheduled to run until Aug. 20, the 7th China-South Asia Exposition will be held in the provincial capital city of Kunming, and thanks to the railroad that started cross-border passenger services in April, legions of attendees are opting for the train as their preferred mode of transportation to the expo.

Nearly 1,000 enterprises from over 60 countries and regions are expected to attend the event.

As of Aug. 15, the Mohan entry-exit border had handled a total of 246 cross-border passenger trains from China and Laos, carrying a total of 52,888 passengers from 53 countries and regions.

To cope with the rising travel demand generated by the expo, a slew of measures have been put in place to provide efficient and high-quality services for attendees.

In order to enhance passenger communication, intelligent language translation devices have been introduced, according to Luo Hui, a border staffer.

Through a simple interaction with its 8-inch screen, the device can perform real-time translations in more than 70 languages. Additionally, it offers support for translating various Chinese ethnic minority languages and local dialects into Mandarin Chinese.

"We also have a real-time monitor for trains, optimized customs clearance processes, and beefed-up guiding services," Luo added.

Vice Minister of Commerce Li Fei said at a press conference that when the first China-South Asia Expo was held in 2013, the annual trade volume between China and South Asian countries came in at under 100 billion U.S. dollars, but the figure was close to 200 billion dollars last year, representing an average annual increase of 8.3 percent.

Nowadays, the expo has become an important platform for economic and trade cooperation between China and South Asian countries, Li added.