This series of photo depicts the living environment and lives of the people living along the Yunnan section of Yunnan-Haiphong railway.

The Yunnan-Haiphong railway is an 855 km railway built by France during 1904 - 1910, connecting Haiphong, Vietnam with Kunming, Yunnan province, China. The railway was built with 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge due to the mountainous terrain along the route. Currently it is the only main line in China using 1,000 mm metre gauge. The railway is the earliest and most difficult railway project in Yunnan and one of the most influential engineering projects in Chinese and world railway history. Regarded one of “Three Engineering Wonders of the World” along with the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal by the Times, it is a living specimen in the world’s history of railway development.

Twelve ethnic minorities such as Yi, Hani and Yao live along the Yunnan section of Yunnan-Haiphong railway. It changed their lives, who used to rely on horse caravan for transportation, facilitating their exchange and communication with outside world and bringing them into the modern industrial civilization.