(removing the name published earlier as requested by the official himself)
From Chiang Hee Tze
XISHUANGBANNA (China), June 21 (Bernama) — China has tightened the regulations for Southeast Asian train traffic entering the mainland.
A Southeast Asia media delegation recently participated in the “China-Laos Railway Journey”, at the invitation by the People’s Government of Yunnan Province, to visit Kunming, Pu’er and Xishuangbanna, the immigration and customs procedures at the transit station in Mohan, located at the China-Laos border.
The immigration processes for people entering China via land routes from Southeast Asia are still highly strict, equivalent to those at airports, even after the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the end of the Covid-19 global health emergency.
An immigration official at Mohan Station who did not want his name to be published said that although the pandemic is under control, careful measures must be done owing to the possibility of other diseases like dengue fever still being prevalent in Southeast Asia.
The official recently hosted media representatives from Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar, providing them with an overview of Mohan Station’s international passenger transportation situation and customs clearance procedures.
Foreign nationals entering China, whether by land, sea, or air, are required to complete the customs health declaration using the mobile application.
People travelling to China by land, however, are required to register their health using the “Intelligent Health Self-declaration Machine of Kunming Customs” at Mohan Station if they do not have access to a mobile network or a mobile phone.
According to the officer, additional declarations may be made using the same computer in as little as 10 seconds after the initial declaration, which takes just 2 to 3 minutes to complete.
With 12 admission routes into China and four departure channels, the station boasts an impressively quick clearance rate of three persons per minute for each channel.
In addition to the standard quarantine clearance procedures, Mohan Station is equipped with a radiation detection gateway to ensure that inbound individuals do not carry excessive levels of radioactive materials.
Individuals undergoing cancer treatment are required to declare their condition.
Mohan Railway station is located in Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. It connects with the Moding Port in Laos and serves as an important national-level land port for China’s access to Southeast Asian countries.
Since China-Laos Railway officially launched its cross-border passenger train service on April 13th, Mohan Station has received over 25,000 business and leisure travellers from approximately 39 countries and regions, including China. Foreign visitors account for 33 per cent of the total.
Wang Junfeng pointed out that, out of the total, 11,000 people started their journey from China, while another 14,000 people came from other countries, primarily Laos or Thailand, constituting around 10 percent of the total number of foreign nationals entering China.
There is only one train travelling daily between Mohan Station and Kunming. The train departs both stations at 8.08 am and arrives at 12.27 pm, with a total travel time of 4 hours and 19 minutes, including stops at Xishuangbanna, Pu’er, and Kunming South.
A total of 210 people, predominantly Chinese citizens, commute daily from Laos to the transit station at Mohan and enter China; by contrast, only around 180 people commute daily from China to Laos.
— NNN-BERNAMA