Where Is The Future Way Of Kunming—Shizui Gage-Meter Railway

With the in-depth discussion of Yunnan--Vietnam Railway’s potential to become the first World Cultural Railway Heritage, the research for the future direction of overlooked Kunming--Shizui Meter-Gage railway raises author’s concern. Kunming-Shizui Line of Yunnan-Burma Railway, unknown to ordinary people, had played an important role for Kunming’s transportation of urban areas, but with the need of urban planning, the number of Meter-Gage transport service trains are increasingly reducing in recent years, no one can conclude the future direction of Kunming-Shizui Line. If the official or folk groups don’t take decent protective measures, this railway line will face with the same fate like other cities’ abandoned railways. Through the sorting out of the development history of this railway, this thesis chooses the passenger train of Kunming North Station-Shizui Station as the fieldpoint, and deeply describes the Kunming-Shizui Meter-Gage Railway, its train together with the surroundings along the Meter-Gage Railway in various periods from the perspective of social change. It combines the on-going action of Yunnan-Vietnam Railway’s Application for World Heritage with the reference to the previous research achievements so as to look far ahead into the future direction of this Meter-Gage railway. Meanwhile, it advocates to gather various forces together to ally the Kun-Shi Line of Yunnan-Burma Railway with Yunnan-Vietnam Railway to apply for the World Railway Heritage. This thesis proceeds with two years’ participatory on-the-spot investigation, combined with the literature data and guided by the anthropological fieldwork methods, and goes deep into the different aspects’ investigations along the railway and presents the previous and current status of this railway through various in-depth interviews. Waking up the forgotten historical memory has significant historical meanings.