January 10, 2010 -- Jin Fei Bao just completed a 25-day walk of the Kunming to Hanoi railroad. This was a 100-year commemoration of this historic project. His trek was supported by the CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) of Yunnan and by the Railroad Bureau and government of Vietnam. Below are photographs from his journey.

At the end is a pre-1910 photograph by Auguste Francois, the French Consul in Kunming and a transcription from the documentry "Through the Consul's Eye." You may be surprised by his attitude toward the railroad. Auguste Francois also took the earliest known moving pictures of China.

Over 100 bridges and 100 tunnels!

One of the many tunnels on the trek

A Welcome at the Vietnam Border.

Along the Yang Zong Hai Lake -- 2010

Along the Yang Zong Hai Lake -- Circa 1910

Twenty-five days of walking!

And Amazing Scenery!

Arriving at the Yen Bai Railway Station

With some celebrating along the way

And Media!

An Old French House

And the Hai Phong Station

Crossing at the Dong Anh Station

Trains at the Hanoi Station

The Hanoi Station

The Hanoi Station master signs the Yunnan/Vietnam commemoration document.

Below: Transcription from the documentary "Through the Consul's Eye."

Back in Yunnan, Auguste Francois, once more took up his duties as Consul. He also took part without enthusiasm in the preparation of a mining convention on behalf of a Franco/British consortium which imagined the area had an abundance of gold, silver, coal, iron, platinum, nickel and tin as well as oil, precious stones and cinnabar.

The problem was that these riches were all illusory and Yunnan was far from being a promised land. Besides copper, Yunnan had only two potential sources of wealth -- tin and opium.

Auguste Francois finally gave in the Paul Doumer’s demands. He began studying The possibilities of building a railway between Yunnan and Tonkin.

“For 31 day now I’ve been clamoring over Chinese rocks, accompanied by an Imperial delegate, looking for a route for our wonderful railway line, so that I can tell the engineers where to place the rails. Most of this route is at the bottom of crevices and gorges which, for the moment, are for the most part only accessable by rope.”

The route was chosen by Auguste Francois, but he wondered what good it could serve. There were no mines, no riches to be transported.

“This fabulous railroad line, what could be more absurd than to take 100 million francs from the taxpayer for such a project. This is what French overseas policy is all about.”

“Settlements comprising a few huts here and three sub-prefectures represent the 40 thousand inhabitants, and what inhabitants they are, who might see the train pass by.”

It was from among these inhabitants, however, that the companies “slave drivers”, Auguste Francois own words, recruited its workers.

“Human beasts of burden, whose destiny it is to blow up the rocks of Namteach. When not in the rice-paddies, the local villagers work on the railway. We also tried using coolies, but they gave up quickly because they were not paid regularly or were robbed by the interpreters or foremen.”

“What a job these poor beasts have -- like climbing the Eifel tower five times a day over mountains of rubble.”

Fifty thousand Chinese workers were used to build the railway line Hundreds of lives were lost and the total cost was 170 million francs in gold – 30 million over budget.

The son of a successor to August Francois in Yunnan-fu, Lucian Budois, wrote of the Namtea region: “so completely did death hold sway in this region that in time no brigand or wild animal would venture there.”

Doumer, “the ambitious imbecile,” as Francois called him, now had his railway, but it stirred up xenophobic feelings in the area. In 1903 there was another uprising. This time the insurgents also attacked the Mandarins, whom they accused of collusion with the foreign devils.

Yunnan-fu was once more besieged. The siege lasted two months, from May to July.

“In my enclosure was a mixture of Greeks. Turks, Swiss, Belgians, Polish, Portuguese, Serbs, Italians and even a few Frenchmen. It was not the last of these whose company I enjoyed most. We ate spaghetti and played accordions and nacarinas, sure signs that a railway was being built.”

“To end the revolt the regional government used ancient Chinese methods. Some chiefs were bought off; others betrayed. The main ringleader was bribed with a promise of rank and medals, but no sooner was he among the Mandarins then he was chopped to pieces. Having been scarred half to death, the Mandarins are chopping off heads. There are more everyday nailed to the fortifications. The main south gate has taken on a macabre appearance. The chief’s heads line up stinking to high heaven. What a stench!”

The Consul Francois, left China in 1905. Back in France he married Elaine de Mamot, and asked for his retirement. He was 50 years old. He retired to the Betenyea property, on the border of Genei and Brittney, where he built his own “Little China.” He died in 1935.

As for the Yunnan railway, it wasn’t opened until 1910. The representative of the Emperor of China, the Viceroy of the Province, “south of the clouds,” spoke of it as “a bolt of lightning opening up the horizon.”

But history would have its revenge. In 1954, the railway so coveted by the aging generals of the Belle Pox, was the main supply line for the Vietnamese troops under General Giap, who, at Dienbienfu, defeated the last defenders of French Indochina.