KUNMING, March 14 -- As of Tuesday, the China-Laos Railway had handled a total of 30.2 million passenger trips since its launch in December 2021, data from the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. showed Thursday.

The China section of the railway saw its average daily number of passenger trains increase from 35 in the initial period to 51, with daily passenger trips soaring from 20,000 to a peak of 103,000.

The average daily number of passenger trains handled by its Laos section has increased from four to 12, with daily passenger trips rising from 720 to a peak of 12,808.

Looking at transported cargo, the volume of cross-border transportation topped 34.24 million tonnes, including over 7.8 million tonnes of import and export cargo.

The import and export cargo spans over 2,900 categories, including items such as rubber, fertilizers, electrical appliances and automobiles.

As a landmark project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, the 1,035-km China-Laos Railway connects Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, with the Laotian capital Vientiane.