BTW @geosax I also heard that Chinese citizens now definately require a round-trip air ticket to enter Malaysia and also assume a visa in advance will be required, particularly if arriving by air directly from China. I believe that there is a Malaysian consulate in Kunming and the Vietnamese consulate is located in the Kai Wah building on Beijing Lu.

@jbsindali,

I have heard this too, and can confirm that Chinese citizens need (based on last year's info, this may have changed) a visa prior to arriving in another country for countries that offer visa-on-arrival services for Chinese citizens. What this means is that Chinese laws override the visa rules of those countries.

For example, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia all issue visas on arrival for Chinese citizens with specific conditions (e.g. round-trip air ticket required in the case of air arrivals in Thailand), but the only way a Chinese citizen can qualify for this is by arriving in Thailand from a third country that is not mainland China (Hong Kong would thus count). Therefore, a Chinese citizen could travel to Cambodia etc. by way of Thailand and get a visa-on-arrival at the border like citizens of most other countries, but this doesn't apply for direct flights from China, where the Chinese government requires a visa in a Chinese citizen's passport prior to leaving to be permitted to board the plane.

Good question; I was wondering the same thing with the proposed Kunming-Vientiane (Laos) high speed railway that will also connect to Bangkok and eventually to Singapore via Malaysia. Construction was supposed to have started last year and be finished by 2015, but political troubles and resistance in Thailand for the Thai-leg of the project, the Wenzhou crash, corruption concerns and heavily indebted government that is no longer able to borrow as easily from local banks have all (likely, since I'm not sure) put the brakes on that and the Dali project, at least for now.

I think the Dali project makes more sense than the Lao one for the time being (and should be a priority); it will be a long time before all the missing connections are made and political issues overcome in the case of the latter, so instead of only 3 years, it might take 10 years before we can expect to travel between SE Asia and Kunming, and the rest of China via high-speed rail.

Trains also go from Ubon via Bangkok to Nong Khai and across to Tha Naleng near Vientiane in Laos, but until or unless the high speed train from Kunming to Vientiane is built, bus, minivan or car are the only options from there, for now.

Myanmar, not likely at the moment, though with the current political situation there looking very positive, it may just be possible that the country opens up quite quickly. Right now it should be possible to travel from Thailand through Myanmar up to close to the Chinese border and then back again, but not as a transit country at this time.

Through Laos, go through the only international border crossing at Boten/Mohan (for the time being, although another crossing in northern Phongsali province may open in 2012) and then any one of the many crossings between Laos and Thailand (for example, friendship bridge 1 between Vientiane and Nong Khai) or alternatively, Chong Mek near Ubon. There are plenty of buses from Ubon that with connections will eventually get you back to Kunming. For example, you could try an Ubon to Udon Thani bus, then a cross-border Udon to Vientiane bus, connecting to the Vientiane-Kunming cross-border bus (although that's a long haul). Even longer would be Ubon-Pakse (cross-border bus) then Pakse-Vientiane and finally Vientiane-Kunming, or alternatively, Vientiane-Luang Prabang (by minivan) followed by Luang Prabang-Kunming (still a long-haul by bus). Another option would be to get yourself to Jinghong in Sipsongbanna to break the journey and from there it's easy to get back to Kunming with hourly bus services.