China, Vietnam reopen railway line amid tourism boom after 5-year pause
As Beijing expands visa-free travel, the route could also make it easier for international tourists to visit China, analysts say.
China and Vietnam have reopened a passenger train route that was suspended during the early months of the pandemic, a move that could boost already surging tourism between the neighbours and attract more international travellers to visit the mainland without a visa, analysts said.
Beijing has expanded visa-free access to more countries in recent years, as authorities look to boost the tourism industry as part of China’s post-pandemic economic recovery. Vietnamese citizens can now enter China visa-free at select ports if they are part of a tour group organised by a travel agency in mainland China.
Trains started running on Sunday for the 11.5-hour trip between Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, according to Xinhua News Agency. The service, launched in 2009, was paused in February 2020 when borders closed throughout Asia to curb the spread of the pandemic.
The reopening of the route would serve tourism growth on both sides of the 1,297-km (806-mile) land border, analysts said.
“Over the past two years there’s been a trend of Vietnamese coming in and their economy is expanding fast,” said Steven Zhao, CEO of the Guilin-based online travel agency China Highlights.
After they arrive in Nanning, Vietnamese passengers would be able to transfer to China’s high-speed railway network for cities that they typically like to visit, such as Beijing and Shanghai, Zhao added.
People travelling to mainland China from Vietnam accounted for 4 per cent of all arrivals processed in 2023, according to market research firm Statista. By the third quarter of 2024, they made up 23,500 visitors, second only to Hong Kong as an offshore source, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Hanoi is also a popular destination for Western backpackers and the route would make it easier for them to visit China without a visa, Zhao added. China offers 30-day visa-free entry to citizens of 38 countries, including Australia, Singapore and many European countries.
As Chinese tourism to Vietnam surges, the reopening of the Hanoi-Nanning route would also serve visitors to the Southeast Asian nation, said Dan Martin, an international business adviser with Dezan Shira & Associates.
“In Hanoi, a pretty large percentage of the tourist population is Chinese,” said Martin, himself based in the Vietnamese capital.
More than 3.7 million Chinese visitors travelled to Vietnam last year, up 114 per cent over 2023, according to the Vietnam+ news outlet. China’s Global Times reported that nearly 1.6 million Chinese visited Vietnam in the first quarter of this year.
In the absence of train services, Vietnamese tourists bound for China usually book cheap flights, Martin said, while some inbound travellers arrive by bus.
The newly reopened Hanoi-Nanning route, named T8701 and made up of sleeper cars, was part of a broader effort to improve cross-border railway connections, according to Xinhua.
Vietnam and China rely heavily on railways for brisk and expanding trade, which is centred around export manufacturing.
By Ralph Jennings – The South China Morning Post – May 26, 2025