More than a century of railway development in Yunnan has transformed the province from an inland frontier into a gateway linking China with Southeast Asia, officials and experts said at an event marking International Museum Day on Monday.

The event was held at the Yunnan Railway Museum in Kunming, where exhibits traced the province's railway history through photographs, artifacts, and vintage locomotives.

Wang Xin, deputy general manager of China Railway Kunming Group, said the museum connects the stories of three landmark railways: the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, which began operations in 1910; the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, completed in 1970; and the China-Laos Railway, launched in 2021.