At the time this picture was taken, the existence of passenger trains was denied, nevertheless there was one, but not the through connection to Hanoi, on,y a daylight only stopping train. This was taken on board the daytime service from Kaiyuan to Hekou, the second day of of what would be a run of three daylight trains altogether, and mostly used by local farmers. At least half the passengers were from Yunnan's many ethnic minority peoples.