Greg and Mandy's Travels

Mar 11, 2025

The belt and road initiative is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the government of China in 2013 to invest in more than 150 countries and international organisations. It is comprised of six urban development land corridors linked by road and rail, as well as a maritime road and development of multiple ports. Later a digital infrastructure initiative was announced to accompany it.

It is considered the centrepiece of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy, and as of 2024 almost 75% of the world’s population and more than half the world’s GDP are involved. The initial focus has been on infrastructure investment, education, construction materials, railways and highways, automobile, real estate, power grids, and iron and steel. Most estimates list the belt and road initiative as the largest infrastructure project in history. For developing countries the initiative is appealing because of the opportunities that it offers to alleviate their economic disadvantages. It offers infrastructure development, financial assistance and technically assistance from China.

Whilst exact figures are not published, it is known that the two largest banks in China have lent over US$280 billion for projects making China the largest bilateral lender in the world. Loans are backed by collateral such as rights to mines and ports, or money, and of course the loans have to be repaid with interest over time leading some critics to say that it is a form of debt trap diplomacy, and point out that it can be used to quickly deploy military resources.

We’ve seen some of the other projects as we traveled through the Stans. It certainly had made a huge difference to the infrastructure and economy of the countries, but there was a steady stream of Chinese trucks carting coal back to China in return.

China has so far engaged 149 countries and 30 international organisations. The flagship projects included the China-Pakistan economic corridor, and the US$6 billion China-Vientiane railway in Laos, and it was on that that we traveled today. The station itself in Luang Prabang is almost as big as an airport with all of the associated security. However, it has reduced the six hour bus trip along winding roads to a two hour superfast comfortable train trip so it’s made a lot of difference. And they don’t muck about. None of this winding itself down the valleys along the side of the river. Nope. They carved hundreds of tunnels straight through mountains. In fact, I think we spent more time in tunnels than we did out in the open. A huge project, but it’s had enormous benefits.

Caught the midmorning train south, which only cost us $12 for a two hour ride. Arrived in Vang Vieng and piled into our taxi for a short ride into the town. Certainly not as well developed or modern as Luang Prabang but that’s part of its allure. It’s certainly the backpacker capital of Laos. There are multitudes of backpacker hostels and cheap eats. The things to do in the town include zip lining, hot air balloon rides, canoeing the rapids, rock climbing, kayaking, tubing down the Mekong, and all other kinds of adventure activities that we were just dying to try.

Rested up in our room during the afternoon, and when the sun went down and it cooled off, we wandered down the road looking at the eating options.

Consiana Hotel

Our train

Consiana Hotel