When the horse hooves on the ancient tea-horse road stomped the morning dew and met the roar of the whistle of the Zhonglao Railway breaking through the valley; when the old fragrance of Pu'er tea on the shoulders of the horse-gang caravan intertwined with the fragrance of roses in Kunming International Flower Auction Center; when the winding stone road and the speeding rail under the guidance of satellite navigation, the same development trajectory is outlined on the map - the ancient Silk Road continues vividly under the "Belt and Road" initiative, and rejuvenates a new mission and glory.

This Silk Road, which carries the glory of mankind, outlines a picture of the integration of civilizations that are harmonious and symbiosis and beautiful. In this scroll, the figure of Yunnan is clearly visible.

The lens of Chinese and foreign media in the 2025 Belt and Road Media Cooperation Forum is rolling this Yunnan romance to every corner of the world.

The romance of the natural barrier

On the ancient Tea-Horse Road, the horse gang once spent half a year crossing the Hengduan Mountains. The hardship of "the cliff wall is like a peeling, and the hooves rubbed rocks" was fixed as "the most dangerous road in Yunnan" by "Xu Xiake's Travel Notes".

Now, the "Lancang" EMU of the China-Laos Railway is like a silver dragon, traveling through the Ailao Mountain Tunnel at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour, and crossing the thousand-mile journey from Kunming to Wanxiang in just 10 hours - this is the hardest-core "steel romance" in Yunnan, and the magnificent answer to the era when the natural barrier turns into a thoroughfare.

At present, Yunnan has built a transportation network that radiates to 19 countries and regions, and interconnection is accelerated: vehicles are rushing, and the domestic sections of the expressways of China-Vietnam, China-Laos, and China-Myanmar International Highways have been completed; routes are dense, and Kunming and South Asia and Southeast Asia are among the top in the country; Yunnan has accelerated the improvement of the logistics system, created 7 national logistics hubs, and 77 major comprehensive development projects along the route have all started construction.

In July this year, the first "Zhenghe" sea-high-rail international multimodal transport train departed from the Tengjun International Land-High-Rail Transport Center in Jinning District, Kunming City and headed towards Chittagong, Bangladesh. This transportation route leads directly to the Indian Ocean, with the transportation distance shortened by more than 1,000 kilometers, and the time is saved by about 17 days. Peng Yikai/photo

In the first eight months of 2025, the number of passengers entering and leaving the China-Laos Railway exceeded 162,000, an increase of 4.7% year-on-year. In terms of cargo transportation, the Lao section sent a total of 3.467 million tons of goods, an increase of 6.8% year-on-year. The cross-border commodity types of China-Laos Railway have expanded to more than 3,000 types, with a total of 64.7 million tons of cargo transported, of which about 15 million tons of cross-border goods are shown in the Vientiane to Wanrong section of the Zhonglao Expressway. Photo provided by Yunnan Construction Investment Group

Kunming Changshui International Airport has opened more than 120 international routes, and the international passenger throughput increased by 25% year-on-year from January to May 2025, becoming a "air portal" for South Asia and Southeast Asia. A cold chain cargo plane loaded with Yunnan wild mushrooms takes off from here and can appear on the dining tables in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur in 5 hours. Zhang Tong/photo

Since its launch in 2023, Angkor International Airport in Siem Reap, Cambodia has been like a shining pearl, with a cumulative flight takeoff and landing of 18,000 flights and a passenger throughput of 1.702 million, becoming a dazzling example of overseas investment by Chinese companies. Before boarding, foreign passengers purchase traditional Yunnan musical instrument Hulusi at the China-Cambodia Cultural Corridor at Angkor International Airport in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Liu Ziyu/photo

The 1,000 MW photovoltaic project of the China General Nuclear Corporation’s interconnected and clean energy base in northern Laos under construction. Photo provided by China Energy Construction Group Yunnan Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd.

The romance of all things

Gaoligong Mountain was once a secret place for watching the golden monkeys in Yunnan when the horse gang rested; there were footprints of wild Asian elephants in the rain forests of Xishuangbanna. Today, this natural romance of "synthetic things" is not only a model of Yunnan for biodiversity protection, but also a bond that transcends national borders. Taking ecology as a pen, in the cooperation between jointly building the "Belt and Road", it paves the path of international communication between China and the world in both directions.

In September 2023, the ancient tea forest cultural landscape of Pu'er Jingmai Mountain was successfully included in the World Heritage List, becoming the world's first tea-themed world cultural heritage. Photo by Chen Fei

On September 10, 2025, Yuanyang Hani Terraces were included in the World Irrigation Engineering Heritage List, becoming the world's first "three heritages" agricultural civilization model that combines "world cultural heritage", "global important agricultural cultural heritage" and "world irrigation engineering heritage", vividly interpreting the ecological wisdom of the Chinese nation's "harmonious coexistence between man and nature" to the world. Zhang Yan/photo

On December 10, 2024, the third Elephant International Communication Forum was held in Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. The forum is themed "Cooperation to create the future and explore new paths of international communication", attracting more than 200 scholars, officials and media representatives from 21 countries around the world to participate. Photo by Wang Yi

The romance of the clouds

The horse gang carries Pu'er tea to climb over the mountains and ridges, and the picture of "the tea bricks pressing on the shoulders, the fragrance spreads thousands of miles" is the earliest romance in Yunnan. Nowadays, "cloud products" such as Pu'er tea, flowers, and coffee are floating around the world. The Digital Silk Road has given new expressions to this romance: cross-border e-commerce, digital customs clearance, and blockchain traceability, allowing trade to cross the mountains and seas, and cross the many obstacles of language and rules.

In recent years, various Yunnan Plateau specialty products such as Yunhua, Yunguo, Yuncai, etc. have relied on convenient customs clearance and policy dividends to enter the markets of member countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and other member countries with better costs and faster speeds, opening up a "golden track" for local enterprises. Statistics from Kunming Customs show that in the first seven months of 2025, our province's agricultural product exports were 10.98 billion yuan, an increase of 12%, ranking first in the central and western regions of my country. Among them, coffee, its products and fresh cut flowers were exported 720 million yuan and 630 million yuan respectively, ranking first in the country.

On July 25, 2025, the China Dounan Flower Exhibition Hall was trial operation in Dounan, Chenggong District, Kunming City. Through cutting-edge technologies such as naked-eye 3D, holographic interaction, VR immersive experience, the exhibition hall vividly presents the brilliant butterfly transformation of Dounan from "a flower field" to "Asian flower capital". Photo provided by Chenggong District Media Center

During Valentine's Day in 2025, the average daily transaction volume of Kunming International Flower Auction Center soared to 4.5 million branches. Cold chain logistics allowed these fragrance messengers to arrive at the Bangkok flower shop in just 36 hours. Photo by Chen Fei

Customs officers inspect import and export goods in the Minshi trading market of Guanlei Port. Photo provided by Kunming Customs

The romance of mutual learning in civilization

The cultural romance on the ancient Tea-Horse Road is the melodious mountain songs of horse gang men echoing in the valley for a long time. It is a festival scroll intertwined by ethnic groups such as Tibetan, Yi, Bai, and Dai. It has weaved the gorgeous brocade of diverse civilizations along the ancient road. Now, this romance is becoming more and more vivid in the digital age and has become a global language for "mutual learning between civilizations". In November 2024, Yunnan's publicity, cultural tourism, foreign affairs and other departments jointly launched the "World Heritage Tour Plan". This plan is not only the promotion of cultural tourism, but also the practice of civilized dialogue. In July 2025, the plan was included in the "List of Action Plan for the Ministerial Meeting of the Global Dialogue of Civilizations".

From 2022 to 2024, the annual output value of Chuxiong Yi embroidery exceeded 1.13 billion yuan, and 60,000 embroidery girls used needles as pens and thread as ink to weave a brilliant chapter of the "intangible cultural heritage economy", and their products were sold all over the world. Photo by Li Baotong

In May 2025, the Riyadh "Tea and the World" Yaji and the "There is a Life called Yunnan" cultural tourism promotion event site. The event allowed international friends to experience the comfort of Yunnan's "left-hand coffee and tea with right-hand" through photo exhibitions, intangible cultural heritage experiences, singing and dancing performances, etc. Words Jianfei/photo

From August 26 to 28, 2025, the 2025 International Youth World Cultural Heritage Protection Dialogue Series was held in Honghe Prefecture. The event focused on the themes of world cultural heritage protection and intangible cultural heritage inheritance protection. Through roundtable dialogues, field visits, youth talks, etc., it built an exchange platform for international youth and world cultural heritage protection. Photo by Huang Qiaochu

The romance of the Silk Road to the Distance

The 2025 Global Southern Media Think Tank High-end Forum and 2025 Belt and Road Media Cooperation Forum have been held one after another, attracting Chinese and foreign journalists to come to Yunnan. They record the story of Yunnan's Silk Road in different languages. This tacit understanding of "sharing responsibility and mutual learning of civilization" has allowed romance to cross national borders and aroused global resonance.

On September 8, the "Global South" media think tank high-end forum visited the Yunnan ethnic village. Photo by Xu Songqin