Countries in the region have been realigning their policies in a bid to co-operate in the development of transport routes. Shipping between the regions is expected to prosper. A Yunnan-Thailand expressway has been mooted, plans for rail links between Yunnan, Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand are undergoing feasibility studies, while links to Vietnam seem to be making profits as well as attracting attention. And airlines are operating more regional flights.
The Chinese government is implementing policy measures to encourage the opening of western China, including Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. Encouraged, these provinces have pledged investment of billions of US dollars in land and river transport channels. Even the neighbouring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is preparing for increased cargo flows.
"Yunnan is becoming China's opening to the outside world," vice-governor of Yunnan Li Hanbo told officials and businessmen at a seminar in Bangkok about investment in the Greater Mekong River region. "The rising green economy of Yunnan will help it grow into the international gateway for China, connecting southeast and south Asia in the new decade."
Priority will be given to transport links in the region. Often, investors remain interested in the Yunnan until they witness its transportation network - when they pull out. As a way of rectifying this problem, the province will spend US$1.2 billion to $1.3bn on highways this year, and more on river ports, railways and air terminals.
The Lancang-Mekong River runs through the comparatively developed areas of Simao and Jinghong, leaving China at Mengla and crossing Louangphrabang and Pakxe in Laos, Viangchan in Thailand, Phnom Penh in Cambodia and ending at Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
Chinese products are moving steadily along the river into these countries. The cargo volume, though challenged by road transport, has been increasing steadily.
Guanlei Port of Mengla County in Yunnan, which is about 130 kilometres from Hu-se in Burma, is becoming a transport hub in the region. As the first port into China from Burma, eight or nine foreign vessels are anchored there daily, with trade volume exceeding $12m last year.
Mengla County government has decided to invest more in roads leading to Guanlei and in raising the port's handling capacity. "The purpose is to build Guanlei into a cargo and passenger transit centre in regional transport in the coming years," a local official said recently.
Currently, the two berths at Guanlei have an annual handling capacity of 50,000 tonnes. Last year, about 40,000 tonnes of cargo passed through the port, a double-digit rise from 1998.
Yunnan imports rice, mineral ore and tropical fruit from neighbouring countries, while exporting apples, farm produce, sugar, electrical machinery and general merchandise.
Meanwhile, border trade between Yunnan and Guangxi and Burma, Laos and Vietnam is experiencing a third peak after the boom years of 1989 and 1993. Yunnan exported $288m worth of goods in 1999, more than doubling the previous year's performance.
Border trade is taking one third of Yunnan's global import and export volume. Along Yunnan's borderline are nine state-level border ports and eight provincial ones.
Trans-border transportation has caught the attention of governments, who are smoothing over former resentments to engage in business. While exchanging greetings for the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations, both China and Vietnam have vowed to improve ties.
The results have been encouraging: localities are conducting feasibility studies on river, road and rail links. According to reports from Yunnan Daily published in Kunming, officials from Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture have conducted studies on the possibility of opening shipping routes along the Irrawaddy River, which winds its way through Burma to the Indian Ocean.
The shipping distance to the Indian Ocean this way works out as being 1,120 kilometres shorter than using Zhanjiang Port in Guangdong Province, according to local experts. Another river from Yunnan, the Nujiang River or "Salween River", goes through both Thailand and Burma and ends at Mawlamyine Port in Burma. However, navigation along the river in Yunnan is problematic due to narrow waterways and shoals.
According to analysis by Zhai Jianlin from the Yunnan Highway Transport Administration, express cargo transport will remain the dominant transport method over the next three years. Among all cargoes in Yunnan, the size of shipments is declining, with mass shipments of homogenous goods being replaced by smaller and more frequent batches of products.
Shippers are thus demanding convenient, timely and reliable forwarding. Highways could meet these requirements, and deliver cargoes directly to warehouses, enterprises, ports and other terminals.
According to minister of communications, Huang Zhendong, the country will build a number of trunk highways in western China during the next 10 years.
One of them will run from Lanzhou in Gansu Province to Mohan in Mengla County, Yunnan, which is close to Guanlei Port.
Another will run from Baotou from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to Beihai seaport in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Another line will possibly link Xining, capital of Qinghai Province with Daluo of Yunnan at the border with Burma.
Yunnan is expected to complete expressways from Yuxi to Yuanjiang and from Qujing to Luliang this year, said Yunnan Provincial Highway Bureau director Yang Jiafu. Apart from continuing to build several other high quality highways, at least three new ones will be opened this year.
Cargo volume by road has been growing by around six per cent on average over the past five years. The rate is expected to be maintained during the next five years, according to Zhao Xiuqiang from the Yunnan Highway Planning and Inspection Design Academy.
Rail transport is second in volume to road transport, despite record-breaking levels achieved last year. The Kunming Railway Bureau handled 32.86 million tonnes of cargo in 1999, a rise of six per cent from the year before.
Nevertheless, experts from Yunnan are considering more outlets. If the railway between Dali and Ruili in western Yunnan could be extended into Burma and Thailand, rail freight from Sichuan, Guizhou and even northern China could reach the Indian Ocean faster and more conveniently.
Rail carriers and shippers from China may even be able to participate in the construction of container terminals near Rangoon (Yangon) - thanks to good bilateral relations - so that containerised goods could be moved further.
Critics, however, have said they would prefer to utilise the existing railway from Kunming to Hanoi, which also links Nanning through Youyiguan Pass in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Though the rail terminal ends close to the South China Sea, it will need less investment in the near future.
These arguments fail to deter localities from organising inspection tours and conducting feasibility studies to expand the so-called Pan-Asian railway from western Yunnan to Bangkok, as well as to Rangoon.
"The prospects are irresistible," one insider from Yunnan commented, "especially when the whole of western China is opening up, which means more freight will have to be moved out."
Air carriers have been the chief beneficiaries of the rail debate. While the central government highlights regional and lateral lines, Yunnan Airlines is cultivating new routes and consolidating existing lines to neighbouring countries.
On March 26, the airline will launch its new route from Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan to Bangkok, flying Wednesdays and Saturdays. The carrier opened flights from Kunming to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in 1993, one year after its formation.
It handles air cargo in the bellyspace of its Boeings. Annual freight growth from Yunnan has been climbing steadily at around 10 per cent. After years of being regarded as the most efficient of Chinese airlines, general manager Li Changxin said he was confident of expanding profits due to rosy prospects in Yunnan and neighbouring regions and countries.
Information from insiders says that more trans-national routes are under consideration. Apart from its Kunming-Chiang Mai flight, local authorities are endeavouring to start flights from Jinghong in southern Yunnan to Burma and Thailand.