For China Vietnam border crossings in Dongxing, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China, Tuesday is only an average day. Vietnamese people wearing conical hats are busy buying things, Chinese tourists are coming home in droves, a Vietnamese family takes the last photo, and others are rushing to do business or see a doctor.
Truong Thuy Nga is one of the most rushed people in Vietnam, Mong Cai, the closest city to Dongxing. She told the “China Daily” website in Chinese. She accompanied her sister to Dongxing for medical visits, but she also frequently shuttled between the two cities.
“As long as they get a pass, the local people of Wangcai can go through customs to Dongxing,” she said.
As of 11:12 am Tuesday, there were more than 3.7 million cross-border visits this year – including 9,124 visits to date so far – as a board showing real-time data on the port.
The busy Dongxing Port has seen an increase in tourist traffic over the past few years as more convenient policies have been adopted during this period to encourage cross-border travel. These include the choice of group travel in Vietnam using only Chinese ID cards and self-driving tours.
Last year, the crossing point between Guangxi Guilin City and Dongxing to Vietnam’s Mong Cai and Ha Long opened the first tourist route between Dongxing and Wangcai, which was established in November 2016.
According to the local tourism bureau, the number of tourists passing through Dongxing Port reached an all-time high of 12.19 million in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 18.24%. Two years later, the port’s high-speed railway will rise further and is expected to start in Dongxing.
