Boarder trade has always been a topic of the town since I was little whether it’s related to Sino-Russian boarder, Sino-Korea or Sino-Vietnam boarder. Legend has it that many people involved in boarder trade businesses got rich over night, though partially from smuggling during the time when the government was relatively loose on tradings around the boarder.
China’s cross boarder trade with Vietnam has been booming for the past three decades with both countries’ strengthening of trading activities especially in 2017 when the two countries implemented cross-boarder cooperation. I was told by Mr. Kuo, who has been working in Hai Phong in the 1990s and has been doing business around Dong Xing Port for over 20 years, “Dong Xing” in the 1990s was just a rural town with only a few sparsely scattered shops and buildings.” Now the city houses a significant number of wholesale markets, a long pedestrian street along the port that is full of hustle and bustle, the scene is simply captivating for those interested in China Vietnam boarder trade.
Here’s a list of top 10 best selling products I’ve compiled after spending days wondering around the port, bartering with business owners.
Top 10 Best Selling Products at Sino-Vietnam Boarder
1.Hardwood Furniture
Furniture shops selling rosewood and other rare hardwood furniture dotted along every corner of Sino-Vietnam city of Dong Xing. As the largest hardwood furniture exporter to China, Vietnamese hardwood furniture are deeply adored by Chinese as the prices are only half of those counterparts made in China, which has drawn flocks and flocks of Chinese businessmen setting up redwood furniture factories in Bac Ninh around Sino-Vietnam boarder. In Dong Ky, Vietnam’s carpentry town known for its traditional hand-carved wood furniture, exports 70% of its furniture to China.
2. Agar wood Products
Agar wood incense is hailed as king of incenses, and agar wood products are also considered as something of high quality and purity with a long and enriching culture in China. Still, as a Chinese, it’s quite hard for me to understand the popularity of agar wood products. But as I trotted along Dong Xing, I was blown away by the number of shops selling agar wood accessories and the number of tourists who were anxiously snapping up deals of agar wood bracelets on the counter of Van Chung International wholesale market.
3. Rubber Slippers
Chinese just adore Vietnamese rubber slippers especially the brand Binh Tien. A stroll down the port of Dong Xing, it’s not surprising to find brick and mortar shops with cartons and cartons of rubber slippers filled to the brim or hung on the walls. A legendary footwear in Vietnam, rubber slippers are indispensable in daily life. The rubber from Vietnam is considered to be more natural and of better quality.
4. Seafood
With a coastline of 3,260 km stretching from the north to the south, Vietnam is a large producer of seafood. Its proximity to China especially with Beilun river at several feets’ distance made it simply a breeze to transport the seafood to China alive.
5. Frozen Food
Frozen food like frozen chicken feet that are not eaten in western countries are quite popular in China. A cheap way is to transport these unwanted food to Vietnam first then from Sino-Vietnam boarder into China.
6. Coffee
Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee in the world with a fame for Robusta. Souvenir shops around Dong Xing port were fully loaded with stacks and stacks of coffee.
7. Cigarettes
Vietnam is one of the cheapest countries to buy cigarettes, with one packet cost as little as US$0.4.
8. Wine
Speaking of fine wine, Vietnam seldom comes to the mind. However, the country is more known for its fruit wine than for its grape-based counterpart.
9. White Tiger Balm (Bach Ho Hoat Lac Cao)
Tiger balm is a staple of Chinese families’ medicine cabinets and it’s literally used for everything, any type of aches and cuts.
10. Perfume
As we all know, French perfumes are famous all over the world, seldom do we know that the ingredients of French perfumes come mostly from Vietnam, and Vietnamese perfume has a great historical relationship with French perfume. The Vietnamese perfume has a great advantage in price. Some famous brands of Vietnamese perfumes include: Miss Saigon, Miss Vietnam, Sennie perfume, etc.