Early in the morning, on the border between China and Vietnam, Hekou resident Wang Liumei’s cell phone kept ringing. Calls came in one after another, hurrying her to the border market. “The business has been booming. It wouldn’t even have been possible without the country’s efforts to accelerate the process to open up border areas,” said Wang Liumei.

Since large trucks were used to transport dragon fruit and other major local commodities across the border this February, the transport cost has been greatly reduced, driving up the border trade. In the first half of the year, the trade volume of dragon fruit had reached 61,000 tons with a total value of 43 million US dollars, making Hekou the largest on-land importer of dragon fruit from Vietnam. Wang Liumei has become one of the beneficiaries of the favorable policy.

"Hekou has been a trade town since hundreds of years ago,” introduced an official of Hekou Bureau of Commerce, Industry and Information Technology. In recent years, Hekou has been actively engaged in the Belt and Road Initiative, striving to establish itself as an important gateway to South and Southeast Asia and beyond.

In the first half of 2017, Hekou’s total import and export value reached 842 million US dollars, up 35.5% year on year. Import and export cargo totaled 2.799 million tons, up 113.1%; passengers entering and exiting via Hekou registered 2.065 million, up 14.8%; vehicles entering and exiting via Hekou exceeded 142,000, up 70.8%. All the four indicators have maintained rapid growth, setting a new record high.

The fertilizer exported to Vietnam by Tianhong Trade Company doubled compared with that of last year, with a total sale of around 46 million US dollars. “We have opened three new stores in Vietnam's Thanh Hoa Province this year,”said Shi Shengjie, general manager of the company. The export credit insurance provided by the government has largely reduced the risks of Chinese enterprises investing overseas.