In fact, between 1904 and 1909 the French had built the 885 km long Sino-Vietnamese Railway which ran from Hanoi to Kunming via Hekou, with an offshoot to Gejiu.
The KETDZ is 4 kilometers from the downtown Kunming, where the highways lead straight to the China-Laos border town of Mohan, the China-Vietnam border town of Hekou, and the China-Myanmar (Burma) border town of Ruili.
When the Mengzi–Hekou Railway is completed, trains from Kunming, Yunnan's provincial capital, will be able to travel on standard gauge rail to Hekou, on the border with Vietnam.
Hekou |