The rise of Hunchun: a small city gets benefits of location on the border
By Wang Zhen
2014-12-22
A city in Jilin province, Northeast China, is aiming to bring more business from Russia, the DPRK, and ROK as part of its efforts to establish a regional trade distribution centre in the border area.
Hunchun, a city wedged between the DPRK and Russia, has established a trade logistics hub for accelerating trade volume between China and Northeastern Asia.
Since early this year, Hunchun has set off 180 projects, and had attracted an investment of 14.25 billion yuan by the end of September.
The adoption of an opening-up policy has also brought more Russians to the small town with around 150 thousands inbound Russian visitors last year.
With the increasing number of foreign tourists, many shops there have added Russian and Korean signs and advertisements to better attract more foreign consumers.
"These visiting Russians have contributed to half of Hunchun’s total spending last year," said a senior Hunchun city customs official.
"They mainly go shopping here for their daily needs." The Jilin provincial government also intends to boost up the economy in the Tumen River area, which shares its border with Russia and the DPRK, and Hunchun serves as a hub.
"We will try to set up a logistics distribution center as soon as possible, because it will help economies in the region to save a lot of money in transportation costs," said one local government official. China has been striving to establish an international sea route between the two countries to boost bilateral trade.
