A police officer checks pandemic prevention situation at Horgos inland port in Northwest China's Xinjiang region. File photo: VCG

Northwest China's Xinjiang region resumed passenger traffic at three of its land border ports with Central Asian countries on Monday to meet the need of people-to-people exchange, Xinjiang Daily reported.  

Starting from Monday, passenger traffic via road will resume at the Alashankou and Baketu inland ports bordering Kazakhstan, and Torugart Port which borders Kyrgyzstan, in addition to cargo traffic that have already resumed, according to the report on Monday, citing local port authorities.

These three ports are the second grouping in Xinjiang to resume road passenger traffic. On January 8, the northwest Chinese region resumed passenger traffic at four land border ports including Horgos Port.

Local authorities said the decision was made based on appraisal on the implementation of the first four ports, based on improved contingency plan and overall servicing capacity across multiple ports.

Xinjiang's trade with neighboring Central Asian countries has recovered rapidly following China's optimization of epidemic control measures and the downgrade of the management of COVID-19 to Class B.

For instance, at the Baketu port, the number of vehicles passing through increased 156 percent year-on-year in January. Cargo throughput reached 34,100 tons with an annual increase of 125 percent while cargo value surged 75 percent from that of 2022 to 1.26 billion yuan ($183 million). The performance was achieved despite impressive growth in 2022, which saw cargo value rise by 25 percent from 2021 to its best level since the port's establishment in 1990.

Xinjiang region, which borders with eight countries, saw its foreign trade expand rapidly in 2022. The region's trade in goods reached 246.36 billion yuan, up 57 percent from 2021 and ranking No.1 among all 31 localities on the Chinese mainland.

Wang Shoujun, an official from Xinjiang port services, said the resumption of passenger services at these ports was conducive to the opening up of Xinjiang's ports, boosting international exchange and cooperation and fully exerting Xinjiang's capacity as a major corridor of westward opening up.

Wang said more ports will resume passenger services later based on future appraisals.