Boten


Boten is a town in Laos in Luang Namtha Province.

Border post

Boten is on the China–Laos border. It is opposite the Chinese town Mohan. While Boten is part of Laos, most of its inhabitants speak Mandarin Chinese as their native language.
The city will be connected to Mohan by a 9.68 km long cross-border railway. Tunnel construction started in June 2016. As of 2017, it is expected that the tunnel will be completed in mid-2019. Boten is the northernmost Lao city on the 414 km railway, with 198 km of tunnels and 62 km of bridges, that will run from Boten to Vientiane at an operating speed of 160 km per hour. The railway project started in December 2016 and is scheduled to be completed and open to traffic in December 2021.

Special Economic Zone Boten

In 2002, a casino and several large hotels were built in Boten. The casino mainly attracted Chinese visitors as gambling is illegal in China. In 2011 the Chinese government asked Laos to shut the casino down. Today the casino and most hotels are abandoned.