China-Vietnam border port sees uptick in visitors

For the China-Vietnam border port of Dongxing in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Tuesday is merely an average day. Vietnamese in conical hats were busy with goods, Chinese travelers returned home in droves, a Vietnamese family took one last photo, and others rushed to do business or see a doctor.

Truong Thuy Nga, a native of Mong Cai, Vietnam's closest city to Dongxing, was one of the people in a hurry. She told China Daily website in Chinese that she accompanied her sister for a medical visit in Dongxing, though she usually also shuttles back and forth between the two cities to run a bag business.

"It is not a bother for the Mong Cai local people to go through customs to Dongxing, as long as they get a pass," she said.

As of 11:12 am on Tuesday, a total of over 3.7 million cross-border visits have happened this year -- including the 9,124 visits made so far on Tuesday -- as a board recording real-time figures at the port showed.

The busy Dongxing port has seen an increase in visitor flow over the past few years, as more convenient policies have been adopted to encourage cross-border tourism in the period. These include the options of making group trips to Mong Cai in Vietnam by only using a Chinese ID card as well as taking a self-driving tour.

Last year, a border crossing between the Guangxi cities of Guilin and Dongxing to Mong Cai and Ha Long in Vietnam opened, expanding the initial tourist route between Dongxing and Mong Cai set up in November 2016.

The number of visitors passing through Dongxing port registered a historic high of 12.19 million in 2018, up 18.24 percent year-on-year, according to the local tourism authority. The port eyes a further upswing with a high-speed railway expected to launch in Dongxing two years later.

Shi Ruipeng contributed to the story.