Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Song Weiguo) news: On July 7, 2025, the first rays of dawn illuminated the city of Horgos, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. A long queue had already formed outside the gates of the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Center. Inside the freight yard of Horgos Land Port International Trade Co., Ltd. trucks from across Central Asia waited to be loaded. And the city’s roads stirred to life as tourists and merchants from every corner of the globe hurried along, each bound for their destination.

Photo taken on July 3, 2025 shows tourists visit the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Center in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Feng Haisen)

"Where are you headed?" Along Longhai Road in Horgos, Yang Qingshan pulled his taxi to the curb and, in fluent Russian, asked a Kazakhstani merchant.

In 2011, Yang left his hometown in central China's Henan and came to Horgos. He has driven buses and worked as a cross-border transporter. Five years ago he bought a 100-plus-square-meter apartment in Horgos and bought a taxi. As Horgos has accelerated its opening to the world, drawing ever more visitors and merchants from across the globe, he has learned Russian by himself.

"Horgos used to be just a port of entry. And it has grown into a city of tremendous potential today," Yang Qingshan remarked.

"Even when I was little, lots of people here were already trading with the outside world. I never imagined I'd become one of them," Wang Jiangtao, 34, a native of Huocheng County, Ili Kazak Autonomous Region, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and now operations manager at Horgos Land Port International Trade Co., Ltd., said. As the Belt and Road Initiative gathers momentum, the company is experiencing robust growth.

In just three years, Horgos Land Port International Trade Co., Ltd. has completed a 20-hectare first-phase warehousing complex and a 12-hectare second-phase cold-storage facility.

Construction is now in full swing on a 30-hectare third phase, which is slated for completion and commissioning in 2026. Goods from China's Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other major cities pour into the warehouses from every corner of the country, then roll out through the Horgos port toward Central Asia and Europe. At peak times, more than 260 trucks leave the site daily.

There are ten open platforms, nine key industries, and four major bases, etc., in Horgos. It is no longer merely the pacesetter for import-export trade across Xinjiang, it has also propelled robust development in urban infrastructure, education, healthcare and other sectors. Today, this city has moved beyond household-level cross-border trading into a new phase of integrated industry-city growth.

One hundred percent of older residential neighborhoods now have piped natural gas. Every rural road is paved, cross-border and transnational tours have become the top choice for a growing number of travelers. In 2024, Horgos is surging ahead on every front. This year's statistics show robust growth: As of 10 June, the Horgos rail port had handled 6.07 million tons of import/export cargo, up 21.3 percent year on year. Between January and May, the Horgos International Border Cooperation Center welcomed 3.893 million crossings, a jump of 87.2 percent. And in the first five months, cross-border e-commerce trade through Horgos reached 28.05 billion yuan (about 3.9 billion U.S. dollars), soaring 890 percent.

"The rapid growth of vehicle exports and cross-border e-commerce has not only deepened business ties between China and Kazakhstan but has also created a wealth of jobs for local residents," Zhu Hongjian, deputy director of the Horgos Municipal Bureau of Commerce, said.

To fuel industry growth with technology, the Horgos Municipal Government Service Hall rolled out its first "digital human" at the end of June, 2025. Scaled at a 1:1 ratio, the digital human, named Xiao Yi, handles inquiries and guidance for more than 50 high-frequency services, including business start-ups, social-security contributions, and real-estate registration.

"This digital human has only been online for two weeks, so its knowledge base is still incomplete. Xiao Yi will keep learning to serve even more people," Zhong Jie, deputy secretary of the Party Branch at the Horgos Municipal Government Service Center, said.

International visitors are also coming to Horgos to learn. On June 25, 2025, the first group of 32 students from Kazakhstan’s International Kazakh-Chinese Language College wrapped up a three-month internship and returned home.

Over the past three months, the Kazakh interns received intensive training in live commerce, communication in Chinese, and cross-border e-commerce operations. From being too nervous to speak to hosting a full livestream on their own, their growth exceeded expectations. "This internship in China has greatly improved my Chinese and taught me so much. When I return to Kazakhstan, I hope to work in e-commerce and bring China's great products to our market," Rehimbai Nurbozla, an intern majoring in translation at the International Kazakh-Chinese Language College of Kazakhstan, said.

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