Off the wire
• Singapore's consumer prices drop 0.8 pct in February  • 1st LD-Writethru: Chinese stocks gain on securities  • China Focus: Industrial city turns to rice noodles for economic future  • Grim future for Chinese fortune-telling village  • Myanmar allows diplomatic corps to open foreign currency accounts in local private banks  • Roundup: U.S. sailor admits raping woman in Okinawa, prefectural assembly blasts lack of military discipline  • Chinese drug regulator vows to fix vaccine distribution loopholes  • China-U.S. investment treaty talks near completion: former minister  • India says PM's Belgium visit on, issues travel advisory  • Georgia steps up security measures after Brussels attacks  
You are here: 　 Home

Across China: Vietnam's cross-border workers find "Chinese dream"

Xinhua, March 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Every morning, Vi Thi Thu crosses the China-Vietnam border bridge to work in a restaurant in Dongxing City. After work, she goes back home to Vietnam.

The cross-border commute to south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has become daily routine for her and thousands of other "cross-border workers." Border inspection usually takes only about 15 minutes, according to Vi Thi Thu.

"I don't feel much difference," she said.

According to official statistics, there are currently 10,000 cross-border workers filling a variety of jobs in Dongxing.

Business between China and Vietnam is booming, with bilateral trade expected to hit 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, which has led to an increasing number of Vietnamese workers coming to work in the city during the day.

LIFE OVER THE BRIDGE

The increase in cross-border workers is a result of government support.

In the 1990s, China allowed border residents to conduct small-scale cross-border business, attracting Vietnamese residents to do business in Dongxing, which is just across the border from the Vietnamese city of Mong Cai.

In 2012, the Dongxing government allowed Vietnamese residents to open stores in Dongxing, fueling another surge in the number of workers crossing the border. According to government data, there are 1,886 Vietnamese operating stores in China, with registered capital of more than 28 million yuan (4.3 million U.S. dollars).

Tran Le Thuong, who runs a specialty store in Dongxing, said these cross-border jobs are "not much different than working in Vietnam," except they are much more profitable.

"The daily trade volume in my store can reach 10,000 yuan," she said.

Nguyen Thi Dung, who lives in the Vietnamese city of Mong Cai but works as an interpreter in Dongxing, agrees. The 30-year-old woman said she earns at least 200 yuan every day, nearly five times the amount the average Vietnamese does.

Cross-border workers have contributed to booming border trade. Last year, turnover of the Dongxing border trade zone reached about 19.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34 percent. In January alone, trade revenue in the zone stood at 1.12 billion yuan, up 45.8 percent.

China and Vietnam are building a second international bridge in Dongxing to make border checks quicker for the workers, with construction to be completed by September, according to Huang Zhaoming, an official in charge of the building project.

"The new bridge will make it easier for cross-border workers to go to work and return home every day," Huang said. Endi