Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporters Zheng Zhuo, Wang Na) news: “Come in and take a look. There are all kinds of imported goods. Ah, you can pick whatever you want.” Seeing customers look around at the door, Gao Jinhua poked her head out of a pile of packing boxes to greet them.

Photo taken on September 6, 2023 shows Gao Jinhua (first from left) introduces speciality goods to customers in her shop in Tacheng Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/Zheng Zhuo)

On the 6th of September, which was not a holiday, and long past the summer tourism peak, Gao Jinhua's Lida shop, was still crowded. A visitor from Sichuan Province who couldn't get enough of soap, snacks and coffee exclaimed that he was overwhelmed by the variety of goods on offer.

Gao Jinhua's shop is located at the market of the Silk Road cultural products, which is also a pilot project for transforming and developing the trade zone for direct trade for border inhabitants of Bhaktu Port. On the morning of that day, as soon as a number of goods such as biscuits and candies from Kazakhstan and other countries arrived at the shop, Gao Jinhua quickly put them on the shelves and did not forget to urge her daughter to sort the goods to make it convenient for the customers.

The 70-square-metre shop was full of foodstuffs such as chocolates, candies, honey and wines from Central Asian and European countries, as well as daily necessities and cosmetics.

Gao Jinhua said, now the daily turnover of her shop can be five or six thousand yuan. Whenever there are holidays or tours, the turnover of many shops can reach tens of thousands of yuan a day.

Talking about the changes in Bhaktu Port over the years, Gao Jinhua got excited. "I’ve been doing foreign trade for more than 30 years, no one knows this place better than me."

Since the 1990s, Gao Jinhua has been learning to do foreign trade from her elders. For ordinary people, cross-border trade was not so convenient at that time. It required one to prepare a traveling bag to load the goods purchased in the domestic market and carry it on one’s shoulder to go to sell.　

After going through the relevant formalities and crossing the Bhaktu Port, one will arrive in Kazakhstan. Gao Jinhua recalled that at that time, Kazakhstan set aside a trading area near the port where merchants from both countries could buy and sell goods. At that time, the domestic production of clothing, footwear and hats was particularly popular among customers, while there were few commodities brought back from Kazakhstan. Thus, even though it is located at the port, the foreign goods in Tacheng City were very limited.

"The variety of goods is not as great as it is now." Speaking of changes, Gao Jinhua waved her hand and said there is no comparison between now and the past, especially after the Belt and Road Initiative was put forward, the development of foreign trade is growing rapidly.

Over the past ten years, Gao Jinhua has bought more and more foreign commodities from Kazakhstan, Russia and other neighboring countries as well as Germany, Georgia and other countries, with the variety of goods getting wider, including candies, wine, coffee, daily necessities, pots and pans with various patterns.　　

"There are the noodles I just bought from Kazakhstan." As she spoke, Gao Jinhua unpacked a box with bags of wheat-colored instant noodles neatly stacked inside, "They say the flour there can be used to make chewy noodles, and this is sure to be popular with customers."　　

Talking about the way to import goods, Gao Jinhua mentioned a new way. That is, the foreign goods, instead of being stored in the warehouses, will be directly managed by the border cooperatives or companies and declared to the Customs, and after Customs inspection is completed, they will be directly bought by border inhabitants or transported to the enterprise to reduce the double loading and intermediate landing costs.　　

This innovative measure allows self-employed businesspeople like Gao Jinhua to benefit from unprecedented convenience, "No need to carpool or apply for customs clearance, which is much more convenient and safer." In her opinion, carrying goods on the shoulder in and out of the country has become history.　　

In order to encourage people from all over the world to invest in entrepreneurship, the market of the Silk Road cultural products adopts preferential measures such as exempting businesspeople from three years' rental fees, the first year's property fee and water, electricity and heating fees during the trial duration.

In order to make it easier for customers to shop, Tacheng City has set up a direct bus service from the city to the market of the Silk Road cultural products, which also brings more customers. "Those red double-decker buses can arrive here directly, which is very convenient." Gao Jinhua said that traveling to the country's gate and purchasing cross-border goods have become “must-do things” for tourists.

At the end of August, Gao Jinhua made a special trip to Kazakhstan to investigate crops, jade and other projects. In her view, as the opening up of the Tacheng Prefecture continues to be accelerated, the businessmen who do foreign trade have infinite possibilities in the future.

(A written permission shall be obtained for reprinting, excerpting, copying and mirroring of the contents published on this website. Unauthorized aforementioned act shall be deemed an infringement, of which the actor shall be held accountable under the law.)