Matthew Tostevin is a senior editor at Newsweek and is responsible for editorial standards. He has reported from around the world for more than three decades on everything from conflict and politics to economics, business, the environment and more. You can contact Matthew on m. Languages: English, French. Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Chinese tourists are bussed straight from the new high-speed train from Kunming to the ancient Lao city of Luang Prabang. They scramble up the and some steps at Mount Phousi to the Buddhist Temple, just in time for photos as the sun sinks over the river and hills. Then it's off to one of the big hotels that are expanding to cope with the influx of tour groups since the railway connected the town to China.
The surge in Chinese tourism to landlocked and mountainous Laos, a Southeast Asian country scarred by U. But it is also a reminder of the increasing domination of Laos by its giant northern neigbour in the latest geopolitical competition.
Its fellow communist state was the source of most of the borrowing to build not only the railway line, but also a massive expansion of hydroelectricity schemes, investments whose potential payoff has not come in time to avert economic crisis.
Luang Prabang in the north is now a vantage point for the uneven impact of the changes these projects have brought—from the way the new dams are destroying traditional riverine livelihoods to UNESCO's concerns over what the hydropower expansion and the dramatic increase in tourism both could mean for the town's coveted World Heritage status.
