Track laying work for the China-Laos railway has begun in Vientiane. The railway will be Asia's longest outside China. The construction project is Southeast Asia's first in which the CYP500 track laying machine has been used. The CYP500 can lay about 2-km tracks per day, exceeding the required average daily laying progress of 1.5 km. This railway is a strategic docking project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Laos's strategy to turn from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub.