Beautiful in Laos (3)
The end of the Laos-China railway line at Boten Dan Ngam
- Boten
Beautiful Land -
Boten is a special economic zone in Luang Namtha Province, Laos, bordering Mohan or Bohan of China. In 2003, the Lao government granted a concession to establish the Boten Dan Kham Economic Zone to Phukhing Travel from Hong Kong. The area was developed into accommodation, entertainment, casinos, and many other types of businesses. However, due to serious crimes, the casino business was canceled and the concession was revoked in 2007. In 2011, the Lao government granted a concession to Yunnan Haicheng Company and changed the name to “Boten Dan Ngam”. Yunnan Haicheng Company has developed the Boten area into a full-fledged economic city with hotels, condominiums, restaurants, and is developing shopping malls, hospitals, cultural tourism areas, etc.
After we finished exploring the Na Tei area, we traveled to Boten by train again. Traveling by train from Na Tei to Boten seems to be the last choice for locals because Na Tei is not far from Boten. There are buses that pick up passengers and are not expensive. It takes about half an hour to reach Boten. Moreover, the train that arrives in Na Tei is almost noon. If you have business or have to go to work in the morning, the train is not an option for working people. It took only 15 minutes for the train to take us to Boten Railway Station. When we walked out of the station, we found that there were many buses, both vans, buses, and golf carts, providing transportation to Boten and the border crossing to China. Because the station is about 4-5 kilometers away from the city, we chose to take a ten-seat golf cart to the hotel. The route from the train station to the city is a bare hill road with red dust all the way. When approaching the city, we will start to see many construction projects. In the inner part of the city, we saw a cabaret bar with a large sign of a cabaret performer lined up. On the right side of the road is a zone of semi-permanent rental rooms with a row of restaurants. On the left side are large buildings. It is home to various banks, and the inner city area is starting to see more shops, but there are not many people there, especially during the day. It is not long before the driver drops off the passengers at the border crossing to China. However, it is noticeable that the rail travel between Laos and China is not directly connected, and train passengers still have to get off at the terminal station on each side and take a normal bus across the border.
From the parking lot at the border checkpoint, we asked the driver to take us to Jing Land Hotel, the largest hotel in Boten and the only one we could book online. Jing Land Hotel was originally a project built and operated by Haicheng Company, but later changed hands, which is typical of Haicheng in this area where they build and resell properties to other companies. In front of the hotel are elephant statues, Hindu shrines, and a mix of Buddhist, Laotian, and Chinese stucco architecture. The hotel staff are Laotians who can speak Chinese, and there are also Chinese staff. The hotel is divided into two sections: A and B, which have smoking and non-smoking rooms. From our quick observation, we found that most of the guests were Chinese, and there were not many Laotians or Westerners to be seen.
Walking down the street not far from the hotel, you will find many restaurants, grocery stores, Chinese restaurants. We found only one Lao restaurant that sells local food for takeaway. The Chinese restaurants include single-dish restaurants, restaurants, dim sum restaurants, bubble tea shops, “massage shops” and a Thai pub called Bangkok. On the street behind the hotel, there is a small fresh market, food shops and a “barber shop” that is open close by. In the nearby area, there is also a food market, which is mostly a “moo jum dat” (moo jum, moo kratha), a “mala” restaurant and a “moo kratha” restaurant. At noon, there were not many restaurants open. People here do not seem to like being active during the day, which is different from the evening when we can see many people on the street, both Lao and Chinese people, coming out to drink and eat at the restaurants.
In this survey, we visited a construction project of a company that leased a concession area from Haicheng to develop the area into condos, hotels, and shopping malls. We noticed that Haicheng’s management style is to buy and sell, not to own or manage every part by itself. For example, some of the land in this project was leased from Haicheng. We also visited the model building of the economic zone managed by Yunnan Haicheng Company. A male employee gave us information and a rough plan for the development of the area in Chinese, explaining all the areas that Haicheng planned to develop, such as residential areas, tourist areas, various types of industrial areas, etc. and ended by offering to sell condo rooms. The employee also took us to see the condo building that he had bought himself, pointing out the value of whether it could be used as a residence or for renting out.
A clear difference after exploring Boten and talking to project staff, we noticed that public relations and sales staff of real estate companies often gave information about the development of Boten, focusing on the development of the city as a residential and recreational area, especially trying to change the image of the Boten area away from the old image of the casino and gray business in the past. Both staff and project officers often emphasized that the economic zone is safe and is about to be developed into a modern city. The process of conveying the vision and plans of the project to the customers was made more tangible through large-scale models that simulated what the entire city would look like when it was completed, as well as stories, flyers and moving videos, all of which were important tools used to help listeners like us more clearly understand the vision during the discussion.
* This work is part of the research information dissemination activity to the public under the project "Cross-border China Railway: A comparative study of the impact of railway construction projects on communities around main stations in Thailand and Laos", funded by the Office of the Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Policy Council (NSTDA) by the Human Resource Development and Institutional Development Fund Management Unit (NHRC) for fiscal years 2021 - 2023.
** The research project is currently underway. The published content is part of the data collection and is not a conclusion of the research results.
ผานิตดา ไสยรส
Project Leader
ปลายฟ้า นามไพร
Research Assistant
Kesone Kanhalikham
Research Assistant