via the China Global South Project, 15 June 2023: The construction of a high-speed rail line for China’s Belt and Road Initiative through Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Thailand, raises concerns over potential damage to ancient ruins and the city’s historical heritage.
Ayutthaya has faced many tides of history, and now, it finds itself in the midst of a major one. China’s grand plan to build a new silk road – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – will lay out a $12 billion pan-Eurasia rail system, which includes a high-speed train network that will cut through the heart of Ayutthaya’s land smothered with old and vulnerable pagodas. Many Thais embrace the prospects of boosted tourism and economic benefits, while historians and archaeologists are concerned that the infrastructure could irreversibly alter Ayutthaya.
The BRI rail in Thailand consists of a 608-km route and is part of the line that will stretch from the south of China to the Strait of Malacca. The Indochina section links Kunming to the border town of Boten through Vientiane in Laos before cutting into Thailand in Nong Khai, snaking downward to Bangkok, and finally to Malaysia and Singapore.
