Customs officers welcome inbound travelers at Manzhouli Port, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Anjila/For China Daily]

Right direction 

Li Zhengjiang, general manager of a furniture company in Ruili, said that before the epidemic emerged, the business hired more than 200 workers from Myanmar, but for the past three years it experienced a shortage of employees.

"The border reopening means that everything is going in the right direction, and we are also welcoming the return of workers from Myanmar," he said.

Dingyu Duty Free, a shop selling alcohol, opened in the Jiegao Border Trade Area on Sunday. Total investment in the business is expected to reach 500 million yuan.

Guo Shaojing, head of the shop, said that as many tourists and business travelers passed through the port before the epidemic, it only took half a day for the company to decide to set up the shop.

"The local government has given us a great deal of help and has introduced favorable policies, enabling us to open the shop on the day the port reopened. We believe this is the right decision in line with China's opening-up policy, and we are confident in Ruili and our country," he said.

Hekou Port, the largest in Yunnan on the China-Vietnam border, resumed services on Sunday, with people from the two countries crossing the China-Vietnam Nanxi River Bridge and exchanging flowers to celebrate.

The port, which has reopened channels for pedestrians and vehicles, is connected to the Vietnamese province of Lao Cai by land and water. For years, sightseeing and cross-border tourism in the area has boomed, and cross-border public transportation have developed. In 2019, some 6.61 million inbound and outbound trips were made through Hekou Port.

Hekou Party Secretary Yu Yang said a Spring Festival gala will be held to strengthen bonds between people on both sides of the border. During the Spring Festival holiday, visits will be exchanged by Party and government delegations, while a series of investment promotions and cross-border tourism negotiations will also be conducted.

In Tibet autonomous region, Gyirong Port has reopened. Six cargo trucks loaded with products from Nepal were inspected at the port on Dec. 28 as two-way trade resumed.

Located in the Himalayas, the port is 800 kilometers from the regional capital Lhasa and about 130 km from Kathmandu, capital of Nepal.

One of the biggest land ports between China and Nepal, it handles more than 60 percent of the two countries' trade.

The port went into full operation in 2014. Plans to expand the facility received national approval in 2017, with the port opening for business to third-destination countries in August that year.

The national flag is waved by an arrival at Youyiguan Port, Guangxi. [Chen Rongjia/For China Daily]

Trade at the port was suspended in 2019 and 2020 due to the epidemic, but one-way freight services to Nepal resumed in July 2020 after cautious and strict measures were adopted to minimize any risks.

Xie Qiang, head of the Gyirong customs administration, said that since July 2020, import and export trade volume at the port has reached a total of more than 4.2 billion yuan, with total cargo throughput standing at 97,800 tons.

On Dec. 28, imports at the port reached 38.7 tons and were valued at 825,800 yuan, he said.

Authorities have streamlined customs clearance services at the port, and its freight processing capacity has returned to the pre-pandemic level, Xie added.

Huang Zhonghan, manager at an import and export company in Nyalam county, Tibet, said the resumption of two-way trade at the port is great news for the company, as it can reduce costs and transportation times.

This year, the company will send an employee to Nepal on a long-term basis to expand business, which Huang believes will pick up soon.

He said the company will also import and export more types of products to meet demand in China and Nepal.

"With the government continuing to invest in infrastructure, foreign trade at ports in Tibet will be elevated to a new level, and we believe that Gyirong Port will have a better future," Huang said.