Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Yang Shuhan, Correspondent Duan Chunguang) news: On December 6, 2025, traveling westward all the way from Artux City, we arrived at the Irkeshtam Port. This port is just over 200 kilometers away from Osh, the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, enabling freight transport between the two countries to make a round trip in just one day.

Photo shows vehicles pass through the Irkeshtam Port in an orderly manner in Kashi Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Liu Zhaojia)

As Xinjiang accelerates its efforts to build itself into a golden corridor connecting Asia and Europe and the gateway of the country's westward opening up, this port is transforming from a mere cross-border passage into a comprehensive hub integrating trade, processing, logistics, and people's livelihood.

At three o'clock in the morning, the inspection area at the port was brightly lit. Customs officer Fan Bin was meticulously examining boxes of raisins and dried apricots from Uzbekistan. The beams of the electronic inspection device dart between the cargo boxes, with the screen displaying real-time information such as batch numbers and places of origin of the goods.

"In the past, manually checking documents and opening boxes for inspection took at least half an hour for each batch of goods. Now, the entire process can be completed in just 10 minutes, and the whole journey is fully traceable," Fan Bin explained while operating the equipment. These dried fruits, which have just undergone inspection, would be directly available on the shelves of the border residents' trade market early the next morning.

Several hours later, as the sky just begins to lighten, the workshop of the Kanjiugan Farmers' Professional Cooperative for Border Residents' Material Distribution was already bustling with activity.

Gumixiayi Tuerganbayi, the person in charge, was working alongside more than 20 cooperative members to pack the sorted raisins into bags. Two freight trucks were waiting to be loaded, ready to transport this batch of deeply processed products to cities like Urumqi of Xinjiang and Xi'an of Shaanxi.

"When the cooperative was first established in 2024, we simply engaged in reselling, and our annual sales amounted to just over 3 million yuan (about 424,943.22 U.S. dollars)," said Gumixiayi. Now, with the government's assistance in securing loans and providing standardized workshops, she has taken the opportunity to develop eight product categories, including dried fruit gift boxes and mixed nut packages. In the first 11 months of this year, sales have already surpassed 12 million yuan (about 1,699,700 U.S. dollars), and the monthly income of employees has risen from 2,800 yuan (about 396.61 U.S. dollars) to 5,600 yuan (about 793.23 U.S. dollars).

Nowadays, within the port park, there are already 17 such cooperatives, driving employment for nearly a thousand border residents. The "capillaries" of cross-border trade, known as border residents' trade, are transforming into "arteries" for prosperity and enrichment along the border.

At the Irkeshtam Port, it is the truck drivers who have the most profound sense of the "change in speed."

In the past, it would take the better part of a day just to queue up for customs declaration when making a trip to the port. "Now, through the 'one-stop' service platform, I can make customs clearance appointments and submit documents right on my phone, and goods can pass through at any time of the day or night," said Feng Wenqiang, a truck driver with 12 years of experience in cross-border transportation between China and Kyrgyzstan, who has a particularly deep impression of the changes.

Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the Irkeshtam Port Park has continued to ramp up its infrastructure construction. Not only has it completed upgrades to the border pre-interception zone and the equipment and facilities along the passage, but it has also improved supporting services such as water, electricity, gas, and heating. Moreover, it has coordinated the joint efforts of customs, border inspection, and other inspection units, becoming the first port in southern Xinjiang to achieve 24/7 freight customs clearance.

The benefits of reform and innovation extend far beyond that. The "Administrative Committee + Company" model implemented in the park has brought tangible advantages to Shi Chaoxiang, the person in charge of Xinjiang Tongxiangrun International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. "Previously, obtaining approvals required running around to multiple departments. Now, with the related service where assistants handle the procedures on our behalf, we can obtain all the necessary documentation in just three days," he said.

With the aid of the "highway port + direct local clearance" model and the tax refund pool policy, export orders in the third quarter saw a significant year-on-year increase. "Made-in-China" products such as new energy vehicles and machinery equipment have been continuously transported to Central Asia through this port. Data serves as the most compelling evidence. Nowadays, the average daily customs clearance volume at the port has surged from over 400 vehicles to more than 1,000, with a peak of up to 1,400 vehicles. The import and export trade value has grown from 82.967 billion yuan (about 11.8 billion U.S. dollars) to 99.689 billion yuan (about 14.1 billion U.S. dollars), representing increases of 150 percent and 20.16 percent respectively, firmly reaching the designed peak capacity.

Chen Jinghua, the secretary of the Party Working Committee and deputy director of the Administrative Committee of the Irkeshtam Port Park, introduced that by adopting the strategy of using logistics to attract multiple streams, the park has successfully drawn 23 processing and manufacturing enterprises, as well as supply chain service companies, to establish operations there. Supporting industries such as customs declaration and inspection services, and foreign-related insurance are thriving. The high-quality business environment has led to a steady stream of companies visiting for inspection and negotiation every day, with institutions like combined rail-and-truck transport operators and overseas business associations setting up branches in the park.

Nowadays, this place, together with the Torugart Port, forms a dual-engine that jointly supports the trade hub in southern Xinjiang facing Central and West Asia. Moreover, the newly completed Bedel Port has further enhanced the radiation capacity of this port cluster.

As night falls, the lights at the Irkeshtam Port remain bright, with vehicles streaming in and out continuously. The transformation from a mere passage to a comprehensive hub is not only a splendid metamorphosis for the Irkeshtam Port but also a microcosm of the vigorous development of the port economy in China’s Xinjiang.

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