As of May 20, over 99% of the subgrade, bridge and tunnel works on the Yuxi–Mohan railway, the Chinese section of the China-Laos Railway, have been completed. The section is expected to open in December 2021 in sync with the Lao section from Boten to Vientiane.

The China-Laos Railway is a key project aligning China's Belt and Road Initiative with Laos' strategy of transforming from a landlocked country into a land-linked one. It is also the first international railway since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed to be invested in and built primarily by the Chinese side, adopt Chinese technical standards and equipment along its entire length, and connect directly with China's railway network.

On the Chinese section from Yuxi to Mohan, 92 of the 93 tunnels under construction have been holed through, and the schedule for the remaining Jingzhai Tunnel is within controllable limits. Track laying has now entered Xishuangbanna Prefecture, and the main structures of the station buildings at 11 stations have been completed, with all of them now fully in the decoration and finishing stage.

The China-Laos Railway starts from Kunming in China, passes through Yuxi, Pu'er and Jinghong to the Mohan port on the China-Laos border, connects with the under-construction Lao section from Boten to Vientiane, and ends in the Lao capital of Vientiane, with a total length of more than 1,000 km. Once completed and open to traffic, same-day travel from Kunming in China to Vientiane in Laos is expected to become possible.