Laos is the only country in Southeast Asia without a coastline. Nearly three-quarters of Laos is covered with mountains and forested hills that are too steep to live in.
The Mekong River is vital as a transportation route for freight and passengers, a source of electricity at dams, a water supply for crops and home to fish, which are an important food in the diet of the Lao people.
There are three plateaus between the mountains and the Mekong River – the Xiangkhiang, the Khammouan and the Bolovens plateaus.
Most of the country’s population lives along the river, which winds its way more than 4,180 kilometers from China through Laos to the ocean in southern Vietnam.
The capital is Vientiane, situated by the Mekong River in the northern part of the country.
