Construction of a high-speed rail link between Yunnan province in China and Yangon City in Myanmar will begin in two months.
After completion, the 1,920km line will have trains running at about 170-200km/h.
Discussions for a high-speed rail link between south-western China and Cambodia are also underway, in addition to surveys for another link connecting Yunnan and the Laos capital of Vientiane.
The rail links, including another rail line connecting China and Vietnam, will form a network that is likely to be completed by 2020, according to China Daily.
The national network rail plan is expected to be extended to 120,000km by 2020 and to 170,000km by 2030, with about 60% of the country's railways located in China's western regions.
A detailed construction plan to build rail links to South East Asian countries has not yet been finalised.
