by TWA
Kunming (Kunmíng) is the capital of the Yunnan Province, China. It is well known as Spring City or City of Eternal Spring for its spring-like weather throughout the year. It is also the centre of the politics, economics, communications and culture of Yunnan. Head offices of the businesses in Yunnan Province are located in Kunming. Moreover, there is a Kunming Railway Vocational and Technical College.
I went on my journalism field trip on the China-Laos Railway in June at the invitation of the People’s Republic of China, thereby having a great opportunity to visit the Kunming Railway Vocational and Technical College.
The college covers a vast area, with high-rise buildings. It was founded in 1958 by Kunming Municipal People’s Government and under the guidance of the Education Department of the Yunnan Province. It is the public junior-level vocational college having over 5,300 students.
It was Saturday when I visited there so there’s only a handful of students in the college for the demonstration. The classrooms are equipped with computers, railway LED board displays and advanced technology components. About 40 exchange students from Laos are studying rail technology as they have launched a railway link with China.
The 1,035-kilometer railway connects Laos’s capital Vientiane to Kunming city of Yunnan Province, in southwestern China. The college offers programmes for exchange students from the Southeast Asian nations following the China-Laos railway link, Mr Zhang Xingtao, in-charge of the college explained.
The faculty of Engineering and Technology offers rail technology in the area of locomotive, train, high-speed train, railway electrification and telecommunications with practical approaches.
It provides hands-on supervised experience in using railway LED display systems indicating the positions of each coach with the description of destination, arrival and departure time, platform number and shares in-depth knowledge for railway traffic controlling and dealing with disruptions.
Having studied railway controlling, railway maintenance and railway electrification with practical approaches, students from Laos will help enhance the rail sector in their own country, Mr Duan Yubo emphasized.
The college has a library with over 330,000 volumes, campus network, multimedia classrooms, electronic reading rooms, stadium, indoor gym, teaching and other services facilities.
A total of 136 qualified teachers are providing technology in terms of railway locomotives, railway power supply technology, railway signal automatic control, railway traffic operation management, urban rail, traffic vehicle technology, EMU maintenance technology, communication technology, mechanical and electrical engineering, rail welding and other majors, with training bases (centres).
Trains to run on China-Laos railway and electric locomotives that will operate on China-Thailand railway are also demonstrated at the rail maintenance department.
Road infrastructure is the most strategically important factor to the development of the nation, it reflects well on the economic and social well-being.
Our journalists’ group did realize the key role of this Kunming Railway Vocational and Technical College. It is the best institution that has been providing rail training for the students from Southeast Asia beyond the Chinese to produce railway engineers and technicians.
Translated
