Border cities find wealth of business opportunities with holiday travel rush

Business activity in multiple border cities across China was ignited during the weeklong National Day holidays, with cross-border visitor trips and consumption both increasing significantly.

Observers attributed the prosperity to the country's upgraded infrastructure and services, which facilitate transportation for both domestic and foreign tourists, as well as the ongoing positive impact of the consumption peak nationwide.

As of 5 pm on Saturday, more than 70,000 people had entered and exited Hekou port in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province during the National Day holidays, a year-on-year increase of 15.4 percent, per CCTV.

In the first four days of the National Day holidays, China's Fuyuan port in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province recorded 1,860 inbound and outbound cross-border passenger trips, up 143 percent year-on-year, according to China News Service.

In the consumption sector, the number of people entering and exiting the China-Kazakhstan international border cooperation center in Khorgas in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region reached 30,000 passenger trips per day during the holidays, up 35 percent compared with the level before the holidays, China Media Group reported on Sunday. 

Local customs opened all 12 manual inspection channels and 10 fast inspection channels to ensure the normal operation of the port during the cross-border travel peak during the holidays.

The cooperation center in Khorgas is the first cross-border economic and trade cooperation zone established by China and other countries. It has more than 200 duty-free enterprises and more than 1,000 merchants, with nearly 10,000 types of goods from both domestic and international sources.

China's extensive borders and numerous neighboring countries give each border city unique features that attract visitors from around the world, Jiang Yiyi, vice dean of the School of Leisure Sports and Tourism at Beijing Sport University, told the Global Times on Monday.