Published on : Saturday, July 6, 2019
The land port of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has received more than 3.19 million tourists in the first half of 2019, up 66.3 percent year on year.
Ma Huanhuan, deputy head of the culture and tourism bureau of Horgos said that the the land will develop cross border tourism with free duty shopping tourism and border tourism by the Horgos International Border Cooperation Center.
Horgos International Border Cooperation Center is the world’s first cross-border free-trade zone, which has over 5,000 shops selling commodities from around the world such as food, cosmetics, watches and jewelry.
Horgos was once a busy passage used by traders traveling along the ancient Silk Road. The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has injected new vitality into the land port.
It’s tourism season, and Bolat Huanale, from Kazakhstan, drives tourists in his white minibus across his country’s border with China five times a day through the port of Horgos in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Horgos, meaning “a place where caravans pass” in Mongolian, was once a busy passage used by traders traveling along the ancient Silk Road. It became a land port in 1881. Although caravans have faded into history, today fleets of vehicles like Huanale’s gather at the port, which has been revitalized by the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013.
There are hundreds of Kazakhstani tourists gathered in front of a shopping mall, carrying huge bags, pushing hand trucks and waiting to board the buses back home after a shopping trip to the China-Kazakhstan International Border Cooperation Center, the world’s only duty-free shopping center spanning two countries, which opened in 2012.
Yespoli Mijiti was already resting on board. He had waited at the Kazakhstan border even when it was still dark in the morning just to buy a self-balancing scooter as a present for his younger brother.
The Kazakhstani tourists didn’t just come from nearby towns and cities like Zharkent, some 40 km away from Horgos, and Almaty, but also from places more than 1,000 km away.
It was Kulzat Turdebek’s first time to Horgos. She set off from Shymkent, spent two days on a train to Almaty, and took a bus to the border. Her friends and neighbors had recommended Chinese goods for her, so she decided to go and take a look.
Turdebek went on a shopping spree. She spent about 6,000 yuan (878 U.S. dollars) on a scooter and toys for her child as well as many household goods.
According to the border control station in Horgos, there are around 5.54 million Chinese and foreigners crossed the border in 2017 via the Horgos cooperation center, 33 times the number in 2012 when the center opened. The trade volume in the center reached 11.7 billion yuan last year, up 180 percent year on year.