Horgos state gate evolves into an international border tourist center

ZHAO Shoucai, an amateur photographer, believes the state gate in a northwest border city has turned into a beautiful swan from an ugly duckling.

On the border of China and Kazakhstan, the state gate is a landmark in Horgos, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, through which people can travel between the two countries.

“There have been five generations of the state gate since the 1960s,” Zhao said. “The first generation was very shabby, made of cheap red bricks. The gate was locked most of the time back then, with almost no tourists or businessmen traveling between the countries.”

The second gate was built in 1983 when the border at Horgos for passengers and freight reopened, five years after the country launched its reforms and opening-up.

The second generation was relocated and expanded, and more importantly, the gate was not locked anymore, Zhao said. “There were huge crowds of people traveling through the gate almost every day.”

With the reforms and opening-up, the Horgos state gate has gone through five generations so far. The fifth generation gate saw more than 300,000 people travel between the two countries in 2017.

Compared with the official state gate, there is a more wellknown state gate at the Horgos International Border Cooperation Center, which has become a tourist destination.

Shaped like H, as a token of harmony, the gate is 18.81 meters high, as 1881 is the year Horgos became a border pass between China and Kazakhstan. In 2012, the gate won an international award for landscape planning and design.

“Although it was not the official gate, locals were used to calling it the state gate because people also can come and go between China and Kazakhstan at the center through it,” said Ma Li, a Horgos shop owner.

The Horgos International Border Cooperation Center is the world’s first cross-border free-trade zone and the biggest duty-free shopping center in western China. It allows entry of citizens from any country with valid passports or with exit and entry permits.

“From a shabby gate to a famous symbol that won an international award, the update of the state gate symbolizes the tremendous changes of our country’s image,” Zhao said.

Opened in 2012, the center has more than 5,000 shops, with daily sales reaching 5 million yuan (US$739,000).

Ma Donghuai, a shop owner who started his Horgos businesses in 2002, said the look of the border city had changed dramatically. “There were few varieties of goods when I came to Horgos in 2002, but now we have a wide range of goods from all around the world, like wines from Georgia and carpets from Iran,” Ma said.

The sixth generation of the state gate is under construction, to be completed this year. The gate will see about 5 million people and 3 million tons of cargo travel between China and Kazakhstan every year.