[5] The Southeast Asian section of the Trans–Asian railway was originally proposed by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1995 to connect several ASEAN countries.

[7] In the plan, there are three corridors connecting China's southwest region and Southeast Asian countries.

The western route runs from Yunnan Province, China through Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia to Singapore.

The construction of the 106.3 km (66.1 mi)-long Guangkun section of the Chengdu-Kunming Railway reconstruction project began on 18 October 2007.

[2] On 26 September 2012, the 7.6 km (4.7 mi)-long Laodongshan Tunnel, the key project of the entire line, was successfully completed.

[13] On 10 September 2010, a mobilisation meeting for the project was held in Chuxiong Prefecture, attended by a number of leaders from the Ministry of Railways and Yunnan Province.

[16] In March 2013, construction of the 10.2 km (6.3 mi) Xianghe Tunnel, located at the junction of Dali City and Xiangyun County, began.

The tunnel has a maximum burial depth of 705 m (2,313 ft) and passes through 9 large mountain fracture zones.

[12] On 18 April, a high-speed comprehensive inspection train departed from Guangtong North Station and began a nearly three-month joint commissioning.

[4] To celebrate the "China Chuxiong 2023 Yi Torch Festival", China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd. decided to add 2 pairs of Torch Festival high-speed trains between Kunming and Chuxiong from 9 to 12 August 2023.

[4] After the opening of the Kunming-Chuxiong Railway, western Yunnan was connected to China's high-speed rail network, greatly reducing the travel time to Kunming and the southeastern coastal areas .