A railway linking southwest China's Yunnan Province with the ASEAN countries came into operation on February 23 after seven years of construction.

The railway between Yuxi and Mengzi, both in Yunnan, is part of the eastern line of the planned Pan-Asia Railway network, an international railway project that will bring China closer with Southeast Asia.

The 141-km railway has a designed maximum speed of 120 km per hour. It passes through 35 tunnels and crosses 61 bridges, which together account for 54.95 percent of the eastern line's total length.

The eastern line also consists of the Kunming-Yuxi Railway, already in operation, and the Mengzi-Hekou Railway that is under construction and scheduled to be operational at the end of next year.