Cross-border trade volume at Horgos Port, a border station connecting China and Kazakhstan, is expected to grow by 14 percent by the end of this year as Central Asian and European countries vie for larger footholds in the Chinese market.

Horgos is a land entry port, also known as a border station, in the Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture of the 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.

"The new economic opportunities were created by the cooperation between China and Kazakhstan to build the Horgos International Border Cooperation Center, the first cross-border international cooperation center in Eurasia," said Liu Yanong, deputy director of Horgos Port's administrative committee.