From China to Vietnam: My First Impression of Boarder Trade in Dong Xing

My hometown Zhanjiang, located in the Southeast part of mainland China, is four-hour by bus from Sino-Vietnam boarder of Dong Xing city.

Leaving behind my beautiful seaide where I used to play on the beach since I was little.

On the bus, I was lucky to sit beside an awesome Vietnamese lady Vu Jiejie from Hai Giang, who has been married to a man in my hometown for 19 years. What I found quite mind-blogging was they just got legal paper for marriage earlier this year from Vietnam Embassy in Guangzhou. I was invited to join her to her brother’s housewarming party in Hanoi, and what’s funny was, as her concerns grew for me being single and old, she was trying to set me up for a few blind dates with few rich businessmen she knew in Hanoi. With proximity in geographic location, we have much closer ties with Vietnam, and we share lots of similarities in our cultures.

Apart from the warm-hearted Vietnamese sister who was trying to set me up for blind dates, I’ve got to know another cool man Mr. Kuo on the bus, a neighbor I’ve never known, and he has been doing business in Vietnam since 1990s. He was heading to Mong Coi tonight to inspect a container of seafood he bought. In the following days, it was Mr. Kuo who constantly updated my knowledge base of Sino-Vietnam boarder trade. Time flew fast with great companies, and we arrived at Dong Xing.

Dong Xing Port is at a stone’s throw from Vietnamese city of Mong Coi, connected by Beilun River.

On the other side of the river is Vietnamese city of Mong Coi.

A stroll around the bank of Beilun River, you would find a significant number of people crossing Sino-Vietnam Friendship Bridge to the other side of Vietnam. Though it’s not my first time to be in Vietnam, some trading sights along the port of Dong Xing were quite thought provoking.

• Vietnamese female’s participation in society

My first impression about trading around Dong Xing Port was quite perplexed, or rather, was echoed by women empowering women. Having been to over 20 countries with average time of two weeks in each country, Vietnamese female were by far the most diligent, hardworking group in their society. Vietnamese women carrying baskets up to the brim with various kinds of goods were scattering along the port, anxiously peddling to tourists passing by.

Compared with Hong Kong/Macau boarder where only brick and mortar shops were allowed to sell along the port, Dong Xing boarder was fully packed with female Vietnamese vendors peddling cigarettes, jewelry, medicine, etc. to Chinese tourists.

• Vietnamese female covering from head to toe

Females in Vietnam tend to have special affection towards scarves, masks, long sleeve shirts, jackets and pants to shield them away directly from the scorching heat as well as gasoline from the army of motorbikes.

• Vietnamese men wearing green hats

Green hats to Vietnamese men is what masks to Vietnamese women. On the pedestrian street of Dong Xing Port, it’s easy to come across men wearing green hats. Without doubt, they’re Vietnamese. No Chinese men would be happy to put on a green hat. Instead, green hat is a taboo in Chinese culture as gifting a man a green hat is considered as an indirect way to tell the man his wife cheated on him.

• Redwood furniture

Redwood furniture have been dominating the furniture industry in China since hundreds of years ago as they’re the quintessence of traditional Chinese households. Vietnam, the largest redwood exporter to China, has attracted a great number of Chinese businesses setting up shops around the boarder of Vietnam even though the government has launched a series of stringent measures to combat with the smuggling of redwoord. A stroll around Dong Xing Port, it’s not surprising to find 30% of the brick and mortar shops are dedicated to redwood furniture.

• Rubber slippers

What’s mind-blowing was at least 30% of the shops around Dong Xing Port sold rubber slippers from Vietnam. The most famous ones were those made in Binh Tien.

A super huge slipper made from recycled tyres in a shop around Dong Xing Port.

Originally I was planning to stay only one day or two in Dong Xing before heading to Mong Coi, as it turnt out, I’ve come across some interesting businesses owners who relocated from different regions of China to Dong Xing and started businesses from scratch. I ended up extending my stay for several days more in Dong Xing trotting along the streets, bartering with my new friends about business opportunities around Sino-Vietnam boarder. In the following posts, I’ll cover more about boarder trades in Dong Xing.