Horgos Port returns as major gateway

Ning Xin, chief of the Entry-Exit Administration Office at Horgos Port, told China Daily that personal crossings at the port will exceed 160,000 in the second quarter of this year, up from 110,000 in the same period of last year.

"We have seen a substantial growth in cross-border travel," said Ning. He said that the Entry-Exit Administration Office has extended its work from 8 hours a day to 12 hours a day starting from April but still cannot meet the demand of flooding travelers.

Horgos Port is a major land port in the Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Its history can be traced back to China's Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618), when the port served as part of the Silk Road trade routes.

After 1949, the port was renovated and served as the biggest trade port in western China with the Soviet Union.

But the later souring relationship between the two communist countries led to the port's decline.

In 1983, the Chinese government decided to restore the port and invested heavily in infrastructure construction, and it soon became the major connection between western China and middle Asian countries.

"Horgos Port has changed so rapidly in the past three years I can hardly recognize it," said Chen Guodong, a 65-year-old who lives in Yining, capital city of Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture; Kazinform cites China Daily.

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