Xinjiang borders eight countries, and its western edge in the Ili valley is the busiest land frontier in China. Khorgos, on the road and rail corridor towards Almaty in Kazakhstan, grew from a checkpoint into a special economic zone with warehouses, container yards, a new town, and a jointly administered cross-border trade area where goods move without duty. It is not a conventional tourist sight, and it is a fascinating one.
What there is to see
The core is the border cooperation area, a fenced zone straddling the frontier that both countries administer, which visitors can enter with identification and walk across the boundary line. Inside there are shopping malls selling imported goods - Kazakh and Russian food, cosmetics, clothing, household goods, alcohol, chocolate, honey - along with restaurants, hotels and a great deal of signage in Chinese, Kazakh and Russian. Around it is the wider special zone: customs yards, bonded warehouses, long trains of lorries, freight terminals attached to the railway, and the new city that has been built to service all of it. On the Kazakh side the same function continues in the town opposite.
The Ili valley around it
Khorgos sits at the western end of the Ili valley, and the drive there from Yining crosses some of the best agricultural country in Xinjiang: irrigated fields, orchards, vineyards, sunflower and lavender in season, and the Tianshan rising to the south. Yining itself, the regional capital, has its own bazaar, a Hui mosque of some age and a mixed population of Uyghur, Kazakh, Hui, Xibe and Han residents. Together with the border zone, the valley makes a good two- or three-day excursion from Urumqi.
Practical notes
Khorgos is about an hour from Yining by road and reachable by rail; the border cooperation area requires identification to enter and is not open to all nationalities without checking first, so confirm before travelling. Bring your passport. Customs rules on what can be carried back across the boundary line, and on quantities of alcohol and tobacco, are strictly enforced. Weekdays are quieter than weekends, when traders from both sides crowd the malls. Currency, mobile payment and cash all circulate, and prices inside the zone are lower than in the cities.
