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GWR
23-03-08, 09:22 PM
Maps seem to indicate this highway links to Boten in Luang Namtha Province. It is currently about 260 Kms. by road from Boten - through Luang Namtha itself - to the likely bridge crossing into Thailand at Chiang Saen:

China's section of Kunming-Bangkok highway completed

22/03/2008 -- 9:24 PM
Hong Kong (VNA) - The Chinese stretch of a trans-national highway linking Kunming city in the southwest Yunnan province with the Thai capital of Bangkok was completed on March 21.

The 688-kilometre Chinese section starts in Kunming and stops at Mohan, an important trade port on the border between China and Laos.

The opening of the Chinese section will reduce the travel time from Kunming to Bangkok by half, to about 20 hours.

Experts estimate the full opening of the 1,800-kilometre-highway will realise cargo transport worth 400 billion USD each year.

As key part of Asian road network, the project is an important infrastructural facility for construction of the China-ASEAN free trade zone and the Lancang-Mekong River sub-regional economic cooperation. –Enditem

http://www.vnanet.vn/Home/EN/tabid/119/itemid/241574/Default.aspx

Post on progress of stretches of this highway in Laos and Thailand:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=19443&postcount=12

Planning progress on the Chiang Khong Bridge, which will cross the Mekong from Thailand to Houaysai in Laos:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=15399&postcount=58

jpatokal
31-03-08, 02:00 AM
Good story in the IHT (http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/30/asia/road.php):

LUANG NAMTHA, Laos: The newly refurbished Route 3 that cuts through this remote town is an ordinary strip of pavement, the type of two-lane road you might find winding through the backwoods of Vermont or sunflower fields in the French provinces. ...

Over all, even before the completion of the road, trade between China and upland Southeast Asian countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) had risen impressively to $53 billion in 2007 from just over $1 billion a decade ago.