Influence of Yunnan Railway Network on the Economy of Yunnan Province Based on Location Advantage

Starting from the location advantage, railway actuality and development planning of Yunnan, the meanings of the establishment of Yunnan railway network to enhance the comprehensive competition and promote the development of economy in Yunnan Province are analyzed in this article.

The shortened form of Yunnan Province is "Yun" or "Dian", and it is located at the southwest frontier of China, and its south is traversed by the tropic of cancer.Its total area is 394 thousand sq.km, 4.1% of the whole China.Its east abuts on Guangxi Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province, and its north boundary is Jinsha River, facing each other across the river with Sichuan Province, and its northwest is connected with Tibetan Autonomous Region, and its west is closely related with Burma, and its south and southeast respectively border on Laos and Vietnam, and the land boundary lines of Yunnan are 4060 km.
Yunnan is located at the joint of East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, and its east is connected with Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta, and its south can extend to Hanoi, Bangkok, Singapore and Rangoon by the constructing Trans-Asian Railway from east, middle and west, and its west can directly arrive to the Chittagong of Bengal through Burma to communicate with the Indian Ocean, connect with the Middle East by India, and arrive at the Malatya of Turkey, enter into the Europe from northwest, and enter into the Africa from southwest, and become into the hinge of "three-Asia".
As viewed from the global economic coordinate of Yunnan, there are six great rivers along the Asia, i.e.Dulong River (Irrawaddy), Nujiang River (Salween), Lantsang River (Mekong), Jinshajiang River (Changjiang River), Yuanjiang River (Red River), and Nanpan River (Pearl River), and they all can form natural "international channel" in Yunnan.This new orientation can make Yunnan to possess irreplaceable status and function of central hinge (Li, 2002).

Actuality of Railway in Yunnan
Kunming Railway Administration is located as the provincial capital of Yunnan, Kunming, the southwest frontier of China.It dominated railway lines traverse Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, east to the Fenghuangshan Station of Gui-Kun Railway, north to the Yizi Station of Cheng-Kun Railway, south to the Weishe Station of Nan-Kun Railway.The Kun-He Railway is linked with Vietnam in the China-Vietnam Railway Bridge, directly arriving at Hao Phong of Vietnam.It administrates three electrified railway gauge trucks including Gui-Kun, Cheng-Kun and Nan-Kun, two meter-gage trucks including Kun-He and Meng-Bao, and many branch lines.The length of the total administrated railway is 2982.73km, and the total railway operating kilometrage is 2048.94km.The length of electrified railway is 1300 km, and 207 stations are included, and the Kunming Railway Administration is the unique railway administration where gauge railway and meter-gage railway exist at the same time in Chinese railway network.In 2003, the daily average gauge loading of the Administration is 1838 trains, and the daily average meter-gage loading is 694 trains, and the fixed assets of the Administration is 23.93 billion Yuan, and the yearly passenger transportation amount is 13.605 million, and the goods transportation amount is 46.343 million tons, and the yearly transportation income is 3.611 billion Yuan.
The total railway mileage of Yunnan Province is 2982 km, and the operating mileage is only 2015 km which only occupies 3.5% of the total railway mileage of China, and the density of railway network of Yunnan is 62.41 km per ten thousand sq.km, which ranks reciprocal second position in the density of railway network of China.The daily average loading demand of Kunming Railway Administration is ten thousand trains, and only 2000 of them can be satisfied, and the satisfied rate is only 20%.The development of the railway construction has been the essential demand to connect with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) for Yunnan.Up to 2010-2015, the yearly amount of foreign and domestic passengers arriving at Yunnan will achieve 50 million-60 million.The goods passing in and out Yunnan each year will achieve 85 million tons to 100 million tons.Thus large transportation can not only depend on highways and aviations, and the railway must exert the dominant function.
As viewed from the transportation cost, the railway is obviously better than the highway in the line-haul.Therefore, the railway construction of Yunnan must be quickened to reduce the trade costs and promote the comprehensive traffic development.
The "bottleneck" of Yunnan railway transportation has occurred, and many matched problems such as deficient and unequal distribution of railway network scale, low technical standard, weak transportation ability, deficient external channels, and weak dot-line ability harmony, should be further perfected.

The present railway transportation of Yunnan has been the main "bottleneck" to restrain the development of Yunnan economy
From 2004, the railway freightage of Yunnan continues as the increasing flourish tendency of past freightage demand, i.e. the higher growth level.The main characters of Yunnan railway freightage is that the supply of strategic materials such as energies and foods is in an emergency except that the growth of traffic volume is higher.The traffic volume of many key materials such as coals, fertilizers, petroleum, foodstuff, and materials of "agriculture-countryside-farmer" increases quickly, and the repeated addition of "peaks of freightage demand" and the continually urgent transport of key materials make the normal transportation order broken continually, which not only pricks up the intention of freightage, but make the railway freightage always be in the state of "keeping key materials day by day, and making urgent transports month by month".Because many materials such as coals, fertilizers, sugars, metallurgy products, vegetables and farming products are all listed in the key materials, so the transportation must incline to them.In the actual condition that the railway transportation can not be increased largely in recent years, most tasks of the railway are to ensure the transportation of key materials.The freightage ability which has too many problems to deal with should not only ensure the transportation of key enterprises and key materials, but ensure the requirements of private economy, and try to fulfill the transportation demand of other various materials.After the "overload control" of highway, 30%-40% materials are transferred to railway, and many enterprises keep long in stock and are forced to stop or limit production.The satisfied rate of railway transportation can not even achieve 20%.The deficient transportation again becomes into the focus concerned by the whole society of Yunnan.

The influence of Yunnan "less, remote and bad" railway location on the economic and social development of Yunnan
Since 2000, with the growth of economic development of Yunan, the freightage transportation of large amount and long-distance cargos increases largely, and the conflict between the railway transportation of Yunnan and the transport capacity become more and more obviously.Especially, after the economy of Yunnan grows by the speed of double figure and enters into the fast lane of development, and the growth extent of industrial fixed asset investment has exceeded above 30%, and the output of products increases largely, and the growth extent of key out-province materials output is especially dominant, and the daily average loading request of Kunming Railway Administration remains high and not fall continually, achieving 5000 trains, and the highest daily request achieved 10000 trains, but the actual average loading capacity of the Administration can only fulfill about 20% of the total request, and the capacity of railway transportation is so deficient that some key materials can not be transported but keep long in stock.The development of Yunnan economy can not leave railway, but now, the railway has been the "bottleneck" to limit the development of Yunnan economy, which doesn't accord with the development of Yunnan economy and the start of ASEAN Free Trade Area (Li, 1997).

Planning of railway network
Yunnan is located at the joint of East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, and it has 20 international ports, about 90 exterior channels, and it is the most convenient land channel that China connects with Southeast Asia and South Asia.Since 2004, Yunnan had begun to enter into the golden term of railway construction.The president of Development and Reform Commission of Yunnan said that in 2009, Yunnan tried to complete the investment of railway construction of 8 billion Yuan to 10 billion Yuan, and construct the "eight-route-in and four-route-out railway network" which is the big international channel from Yunnan to Southeast Asia and South Asia.The "eight-route-in" includes the Dian-Tibet Railway (from Shangri-La of Tibet to Kunming), Cheng-Kun Multi-track Railway, Yu-Kun Railway (from Chongqing to Kunming, and it is the passenger transport line which planning design mph is 350 km/h), Nei-Kun Railway (from Neijiang, Luzhou and Yibin of Sichuan to Kunming), Nan-Kun Railway (from Nanning to Kunming), Gui-Kun Railway (from Guizhou to Yunnan), Yun-Gui Railway (from Nanning to Baise, Wenshan and Kunming), and the Passenger Transportation Line of Hu-Kun Railway (the planned design mph is about 300 km).The "four-route-out" includes the east line of Trans-Asian Railway (i.e. the China-Vietnam international channel, from Kunming, Yuxi, Mengzi and Hekou to Vietnam), the middle line of Trans-Asian Railway (from Yuxi to the Mohan Port in the Xishuang Banna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, and to Thailand by Laos), the west line of Trans-Asian Railway (from Kunming to Ruili, to Burma, and to Indian Ocean), and the north line of Trans-Asian Railway (from Dali to Tengchong, and to India connecting with the South Asia Railway by the Myitkyina of the north of Burma, and Bengal).

Meanings of "eight-route-in and four-route-out railway network"
The construction of "eight-route-in and four-route-out railway network" will further perfect the function of Kunming railway hinge, largely enhance the transport capacity of railway, largely push the development of west economy, promote the transition of Yunnan from big tourism province to strong tourism province, drive the flourish development of boundary trade, strengthen the national defense construction, effectively enhance the comprehensive competitive force of Yunnan, and offer force for the development of Yunnan and surrounding areas.In recent years, Yunnan continually pushes the construction of the international channel from China to Southeast Asia and South Asia, and the highways and railways from the backlands of China to surrounding countries are continually perfected, and the construction of the China-Burma water-land trough traffic channel to the coasts of India Ocean is being pushed stably, and the status of traffic hinge of Yunan in the big opening to Southeast Asia and South Asia is further prominent, i.e. 11 in-and-out highways, 10 in-and-out railways and 3 in-and-out water sea-routes make Yunnan collect most imported and exported goods from the southwest of China and North China to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and be the most important hinge of the east of the Third Asia-Europe Land Bridge.