In recent years, Inner Mongolia has focused on further optimizing port construction through infrastructure improvement, differentiated port positioning, and intelligent transformation, forming a multi-faceted, three-dimensional port opening pattern, and continuously unblocking the major passageway for China's opening to the north.

◆ Taking the national pilot construction of smart ports in Manzhouli and Erenhot as the driving force, Inner Mongolia is comprehensively advancing the construction of "smart ports" and "digital national gates." Among the 20 highway ports in the region, 19 have achieved intelligent customs clearance, with the time for goods to enter and exit the country entering the "second-by-second" clearance stage.

◆ Inner Mongolia is actively promoting the extension of port functions to the hinterland, with Hohhot, Baotou, Ordos, and Ulanqab coordinating and interacting with various ports. Ulanqab and Erenhot are developing in concert, while ports like Ganqimaodu complement the advantages of energy and resource import and processing bases in Bayannur and Alxa, building a new pattern of open economy with distinctive features. ◆ To further strengthen regional cooperation, Inner Mongolia has deepened its collaboration with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and other areas, actively integrating into the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and continuously advancing the "Six-Fold Increase Plan" for Beijing-Inner Mongolia cooperation. It has fully implemented the strategic cooperation agreement between Guangdong and Inner Mongolia, and is driving the implementation of tasks under the agreements between Inner Mongolia and Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Shanghai.

Journalist from Outlook Weekly

Located in northern China, with thousands of kilometers of borderline, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region connects eight provinces internally and borders Russia and Mongolia externally. Historically, it was a crucial hub and passageway for the "Silk Road on the Grasslands" and the "Ten-Thousand-Li Tea Road." Presently, it serves as a significant support point for the Silk Road Economic Belt, a key node of the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, and an important gateway of the Western Land-Sea New Passage. With its unique geographical location, it holds a distinct advantage in opening up to the north.

The annual freight volume for inbound and outbound traffic at the port reached 100 million tons, an increase of 14.2% year-on-year, setting a new record for freight volume and becoming the first province-level region along the border land ports in China to surpass 100 million tons in freight volume; fully tapping the potential of the China-Europe Railway Express's middle and eastern corridors, the number of China-Europe Railway Express trains passing through has steadily increased, accounting for nearly half of the total number of trains nationwide; the total value of foreign trade imports and exports reached 100 billion yuan, an increase of 23.8% year-on-year, with the national ranking advancing by one place, the growth rate ranking first in the nation, and setting another historical high...

Relying on its significant geographical advantages and the cluster advantages of port channels, Inner Mongolia is fully unleashing the traction and radiation effects of being a crucial bridgehead for the country's northward opening, striving to promote the construction of an open pattern characterized by internal and external linkage and all-around winds.

At the container supervision site of Ganqimaodu Port in Inner Mongolia, workers operate loaders to unload goods using Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) on a certain date. Photo by Li Yunping/This Magazine

Smooth opening of the main channel to the north

At the Ganqimaodu Port, a crucial energy import corridor in China adjacent to the two major mines in the South Gobi Province of Mongolia, trucks loaded with mineral products such as coal and copper concentrate form long lines. Relying on smart supervision modes, they achieve instant lifting of barriers and rapid transit.

A few dozen kilometers to the east lies the Erlianhot Port, China's largest land port open to Mongolia and the only railway port between China and Mongolia. In the inspection hall, travelers visiting relatives and friends, cross-border tourists, and merchants engaged in economic and trade activities are bustling with activity. Trucks loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables are driving onto the "green channel" for China-Mongolia agricultural products, which can be on the tables of Mongolian households within two days.

In Manzhouli, known as the "Window on East Asia," containers loaded with Russian timber, grain, and other goods are transferred from Russian broad-gauge trains to Chinese standard-gauge trains, destined for various parts of the country...

These open ports, from west to east, like pearls embedded along the thousands of kilometers of borderline in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, connect into a chain, becoming essential passages and important networks for China's northward opening.

In recent years, Inner Mongolia has been focusing on continuously optimizing port construction by improving infrastructure, differentiating port positioning, and implementing intelligent transformation. This has formed a multi-directional, three-dimensional port opening pattern, ensuring the continuous smooth flow of the major passageway for China's northward opening.

Improving interconnection infrastructure to provide a solid support for unimpeded domestic and international dual circulation. Infrastructure lag and low modernization and informatization levels once restricted the customs clearance speed and transportation capacity of border ports. Inner Mongolia has been working to address these bottlenecks. In a single year, Inner Mongolia allocated over 10 billion yuan in special funds for port economic development, supporting 100 port infrastructure projects, driving investment of 10 billion yuan. 100 land ports have resumed dual passenger and cargo traffic, the Manzhouli highway port has seen a significant increase in vehicle exports, and the Erenhot port has achieved regular two-way operation of small cars under 7 seats...

With the full opening of the capacity reinforcement project on the section from Benhong to Erlian on the Jining-Erlian Railway and the completion and commissioning of the international freight yard expansion and renovation project at Manzhouli Railway Port Station, the cargo handling capacity of Manzhouli and Erlianhot railway ports has reached 10,000 tons each, making the "iron artery" in Inner Mongolia that connects the Eurasian continent more smooth and efficient. All key and hub ports in Inner Mongolia have opened first-class highways, significantly enhancing the efficiency of the northbound opening road network. The Baotou and Erlianhot aviation ports have been successively approved, and the air traffic network formed by the aviation ports is becoming increasingly dense. The construction of several cross-border power transmission lines to Mongolia has been completed, with an annual power supply of approximately 1 billion kilowatt-hours, serving as a model for energy cooperation with neighboring countries.

Zhao Rigetu, deputy director of the Belt and Road Institute of the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences, stated that the transformation of various ports in Inner Mongolia from low-level to high-level, differentiated, and internationally influential modern port clusters is playing an increasingly important supporting role in facilitating the smooth circulation of both domestic and international dual cycles.

Differentiated positioning of the three functional clusters will promote complementary and coordinated development of neighboring port functions. Along the long borderline of Inner Mongolia, there are open ports, among which land ports undertake about % of the land transportation between China and Mongolia and more than % of the land transportation between China and Russia. Of the national China-Europe freight train routes, pass through Inner Mongolia for exit. To further address the issues of homogenized competition and isolated operation at ports, and to better convert the port advantages into competitive and developmental advantages, Inner Mongolia is focusing on building three major port functional clusters.

Deputy Director Guo Zhouming of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Commerce Department introduced that the three major port functional groups are centered around the Manzhouli Port, forming an eastern port functional group dominated by international trade, commercial services, and cross-border tourism; centered around the Erenhot Port and Hohhot Air Port, creating a central port functional group led by international trade, international logistics, and manufacturing; and centered around the Ceke and Ganqimaodu road ports, creating a western port functional group focused on energy and mineral product import and processing. These groups aim to achieve complementary functions and coordinated development among neighboring ports.

Comprehensively build "smart ports" and "digital national gates" to make cross-border movement of resource elements more efficient. At the first national demonstration site for land-based cross-border transportation, reporters witnessed unmanned trucks carrying coal containers driving along designated routes, autonomously traversing between China and Mongolia, which is cleaner and more efficient compared to traditional methods.

As the largest highway port in Inner Mongolia in terms of cargo clearance volume, Ganqimaodu Port sees over a thousand inbound trucks daily, posing high demands on the efficiency of port clearance. Qin Ruiqiang, Deputy Director of the Ganqimaodu Port Management Committee, introduced that the port handled . million tons of cargo in the previous year, a .% increase from the previous year. The rapid growth was made possible by the well-developed infrastructure and multimodal transport modes.

With the national pilot construction of smart ports in Manzhouli and Erenhot as the driving force, Inner Mongolia is comprehensively advancing the construction of "smart ports" and "digital national gates." Among the region's road ports, several have achieved intelligent customs clearance, with the time for goods to pass through customs entering the "second-reading" clearance stage.

Guo Zhouming stated that Inner Mongolia has continuously strengthened the construction of major open channels, vigorously implemented expansion and intelligent transformation of ports, improved customs clearance efficiency, and optimized the business environment, thereby shortening the time for logistics from eastern and southern provinces and cities of China to "move westward and northward" to Russia, Mongolia, and other countries, and accelerating the speed of European goods "moving eastward and southward" to China.

In the year, the region's ports handled approximately % of imported coal, % of imported fertilizers, % of imported copper ore... The northern passageway in China is smooth and efficient.

Local China-Europe freight train services have seen both quantity and quality improvements, empowering international logistics to drive open development. From an annual figure of trains to a record-breaking trains in , Inner Mongolia's China-Europe freight train services have seen an average annual growth rate of .%. By the end of , the region had cumulatively organized the operation of China-Europe freight trains, carrying . million standard containers; the total number of routes operated reached , connecting countries and cities across Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Inner Mongolia has also explored market-oriented operations of China-Europe freight trains under government guidance. In terms of exports, it organizes the shipment of locally-customized trains featuring regional specialties, leveraging the China-Europe freight trains to facilitate the sale of local products abroad. By the end of the year, Inner Mongolia had operated nearly a hundred outbound trains carrying local agricultural and sideline products, Chery cars, and cross-border e-commerce goods, achieving significant growth. In terms of imports, it organizes customized return trains for specialized industries, aiding in the local processing of imported timber, grain and oil, and potash fertilizer. There have been breakthroughs and improvements in the processing of port-entry resources, and a preliminary supply chain has formed between port resources and in-region processing enterprises.

A truck is loading and unloading containers at the container yard of the freight workshop at Manzhouli Station in Inner Mongolia (photographed on a certain date). Photo by Beihe/This magazine.

Accelerate the development of an open economy

Promoting large-scale development through large-scale opening is inherent in the strategy of opening northward for Inner Mongolia. Currently, Inner Mongolia is fully leveraging the guiding role of the "Implementation Plan for High-Quality Development of Inner Mongolia's Ports," accelerating the construction of import and processing bases for 10 million tons of iron ore, 1 million tons of grain and oil, and 10,000 tons of livestock products, focusing on strengthening coordinated development between border areas and hinterlands, expanding and strengthening the import scale of bulk commodities at ports and the processing industry clusters for bulk resources within the region. Efforts are being made to drive the processing of imported resources in the border industrial parks planned by the state, expediting the formation of a new pattern of coordinated development with "ports + hinterlands" and "ports + industrial parks," transforming "economic corridors" into "corridor economies" and "transit economies" into "landed economies," thereby better converting geographical advantages into opening advantages and development advantages.

Leveraging Resources and Policy Advantages to Develop Pan-Port Economy. Inner Mongolia has deeply integrated into the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road and the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, actively developing the pan-port economy. The region's ports have formed eight major processing industries around the categories of imported bulk commodities, including coal and coke chemical, grain and oil deep processing, wood processing, and cashmere processing. Currently, the rate of domestic processing and transformation of imported bulk commodities has reached over %.

The Ganqimaodu Port Processing Zone has achieved integrated management of the port and taken on the processing of resources entering the port. Qin Ruiqiang stated that Ganqimaodu Port leverages its large-scale Mongolian coal trade to establish the Ganqimaodu Mongolian Coal Trading Platform, regularly releasing Mongolian coal price indices. Additionally, efforts have been intensified to attract investment, focusing on areas such as coal logistics and storage, fruit and vegetable export processing, border trade, and clean energy, to attract more projects to take root and flourish at the port.

As one of the first designated ports for inbound grain transportation in the country, Manzhouli has cultivated its port economy by focusing on grain processing. At the Manzhouli Railway Port, the first border trade point for mutual trade between border residents in Inner Mongolia, China-Europe freight trains loaded with products such as rapeseed, flaxseed, and oats directly enter the park, where they are processed by enterprises within the park.

Manzhouli's unique location connects two major markets, Russia and China, and can play a pivotal role as a small city with a big port. Yu Weidong, Secretary of the Manzhouli Municipal Committee, stated that Manzhouli is accelerating the construction of an international land port, focusing on the four aspects of "passing," "landing," "processing," and "expanding." While ensuring the smooth operation of the port, it is vigorously developing industries for the processing of imported resources such as timber, liquefied petroleum gas, and grain. Efforts are being made to promote the construction of chemical industrial zones, extend the deep processing industry chain of imported resources, and accelerate the formation of a new pattern of port development driven by the port, supported by the hinterland, and interactive between the border and the hinterland.

Erenhot City is one of the first pilot areas in the country for the processing of goods from cross-border trade. Leveraging the preferential policy that "border residents are exempt from import tariffs and import-related taxes for goods imported through cross-border trade worth less than RMB 8,000," the "border residents' cross-border trade + on-site processing" model is becoming a key driver for local development of port-based economy. Currently, there are processing enterprises at the Erenhot Port, importing goods such as flaxseed, cashmere, and frozen beef. Sun Weiqi, Director of the Erenhot Cross-Border Economic Cooperation Service Center, introduced that the processing of goods from cross-border trade has become an important engine for the economic development of border cities, achieving a win-win situation for "border residents increasing income, enterprises gaining development, and the government creating tax revenue."

Promoting the extension of port functions to the hinterland, constructing a new pattern of open economy. As the leading goose of Inner Mongolia's foreign trade, Bayannur City fully leverages the advantages of modern agriculture and animal husbandry industrialization and its location, focusing on developing an outward-oriented economy. Wuyuan County, a small town in northwest China, is the largest sunflower-growing county in the country, with its annual sunflower seed trade volume accounting for one-sixth of the global total. The county is home to numerous foreign trade enterprises.

Stepping into the production workshop of Wuyuan County Mintai Agricultural Trade Co., Ltd., fully automated production equipment is operating at high speed. Amidst the machine's roar, dust and impurities are removed from sunflower seeds. After selection, clean and plump sunflower seeds are packed into bags, ready to embark on the "Belt and Road" and reach destinations in the Middle East, Europe, and beyond. "The company's annual export trade volume reaches one billion yuan, with products sold to dozens of countries including Germany, South Korea, Egypt, and Turkey," said General Manager Wang Fei.

Leveraging the advantages of its ports to drive the economic development of its hinterland is a key aspect of Inner Mongolia's efforts to build an open economy. Inner Mongolia is actively promoting the extension of port functions into the hinterland, with Hohhot, Baotou, Ordos, and Ulanqab coordinating and interacting with various ports. Ulanqab and Erenhot are working closely to develop together, while ports like Ganqimaodu complement the energy and resource import and processing bases in Bayannur and Alxa, creating a new pattern of open economy with distinct characteristics.

In the first three quarters of this year, Inner Mongolia's foreign trade performance has been impressive. The total import and export value of the region reached . billion yuan, an increase of .% year-on-year, which is . percentage points higher than the national average. The region's import and export trade has maintained double-digit growth for consecutive months, with its ranking among all provinces rising from the th place in January to the th place. It is expected that the annual growth rate of foreign trade import and export can achieve the target of %, with the total import and export value exceeding . billion yuan for the first time, reaching over . billion yuan. The trade forms have become increasingly diversified, with significant growth in trade such as used car exports, border trade, and cross-border e-commerce.

Guo Zhouming stated that Inner Mongolia possesses strategic location advantages and vast market space with the characteristics of "connecting eight provinces internally, close to the capital region, and externally connecting Russia, Mongolia, and reaching Europe and Asia." The economy is resilient with great potential. As long as the unique roles of the port cluster and the major hubs of the East and Central corridors of the China-Europe freight trains are fully utilized, and continuous efforts are made to promote the construction of a market-oriented, rule-of-law-based, and internationalized business environment, the quality and efficiency of the open economy will be further enhanced.

At a Russian-style restaurant in Manzhouli City, Inner Mongolia, a Russian waiter serves dishes (Photo taken on [Year-Month-Day] by Bei He/This magazine)

From the "hinterland" to the "open frontier"

Building a significant bridgehead for national opening-up to the north is a crucial support for Inner Mongolia to serve and integrate into the new development paradigm. Inner Mongolia leads with a great ideological leap to promote comprehensive openness, breaking free from the mindset of "one mu and three points of land," and establishing the concepts that "Inner Mongolia, though on the border, is not distant," "focusing on opening up to the north but not limited to the north," and "deepening regional cooperation is also a form of openness." It positions Inner Mongolia's openness within the context of both domestic and international dual-circulation, deepening exchanges and cooperation with regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the three northeastern provinces, while continuing to target countries and regions such as Russia, Mongolia, Japan, South Korea, and Europe and America to expand economic and trade exchanges. The aim is to fully build a comprehensive open platform that connects both within and beyond, radiates to the surrounding areas, gathers and disperses resources, and integrates elements.

Inner Mongolia deepens cooperation with regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta, actively integrates into the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and continuously advances the "Six Doubling Plans" of the Beijing-Inner Mongolia cooperation. It fully implements the Guangdong-Inner Mongolia strategic cooperation agreement, and promotes the implementation of tasks under the agreements with Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Shanghai.

Under the background of regional cooperation, investment promotion and signing meetings are held every now and then, with projects of all sizes flourishing, and leading enterprises in new energy sectors are settling down... Inner Mongolia is intensifying its efforts in attracting investment, actively taking over industrial transfers, and a batch of industries from the eastern coastal developed areas have taken root here, forming a new industrial phenomenon of "peacocks flying northwest, phoenixes building nests," which is thriving as a new industrial highland in the western region.

For instance, in the old industrial city of Baotou, the photovoltaic silicon industry has rapidly taken shape, attracting domestic leading photovoltaic companies like GCL, Tongwei, and Daqo to establish operations in just a few years, making it the city with the largest national capacity for monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon; Tongliao, as a national demonstration zone for industrial transfer, has seen rapid development in the wind power equipment industry, attracting numerous wind turbine and component manufacturers, gradually building a comprehensive new energy equipment manufacturing chain; Ordos, a city strong in energy, is vigorously cultivating an integrated industrial chain for wind, solar, hydrogen, and energy storage, with major projects such as the world's first green hydrogen substitution for coal-to-olefin production and the world's first zero-carbon industrial park being implemented, signaling the emergence of a new industrial ecosystem...

"Taking on industrial transfers means optimizing resource allocation on a larger scale, seeking more advantageous regional resources for advanced production factors," said Wang Jinbao, Director of the Industry and Information Technology Department of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Going forward, Inner Mongolia will target key regions such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin City Economic Circle, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It will focus on global giants, Chinese giants, private sector giants, and manufacturing giants, and will engage in targeted investment promotion activities, with a particular emphasis on industries such as new energy, new materials, advanced equipment manufacturing, and biomedicine.

Leading the Institutional Opening-up with the Free Trade Zone Creation Project. This year, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Party Committee proposed the "Free Trade Zone Creation Project," aiming to establish the China (Inner Mongolia) Pilot Free Trade Zone as a key measure to build a major bridgehead for China's opening-up to the north. Efforts will be intensified to innovate institutional mechanisms, expedite the introduction of a series of foundational reform measures and high-level opening-up initiatives, enhance the functions of platforms such as the border trade zones and comprehensive bonded zones, and deepen cooperation with Mongolia and Russia in areas such as agriculture and animal husbandry, energy and minerals, infrastructure, and ecological environmental protection. Full efforts will be made to ensure substantial progress in the creation work.

Creating a free trade pilot zone is inseparable from the development of unique preferential policies, economic resources, and policy autonomy. As the capital city, Hohhot boasts distinctive advantages such as the "National Logistics Hub for Commercial Services," the "National Cold Chain Logistics Base," and the "National Land Port Logistics Hub." The Comprehensive Bonded Zone of Hohhot fully leverages the complementary advantages of rail services and "zone-port linkage," actively exploring the construction of a hub for goods transiting from Tianjin Port to Central and Northern Asia and Europe, as well as domestic import and export goods gathering in Hohhot. Liao Yanyu, Director of the Hohhot Municipal Bureau of Commerce, introduced that Hohhot accelerates reform and innovation through the creation of the free trade zone, propelling the business environment to new heights. The city proposes "five batches"—opening up a batch of service channels, building a batch of trade systems, deploying a batch of foreign trade formats, enhancing a batch of competitive levels, and deepening a batch of exchange and cooperation—with a focus on driving the implementation of tailor-made reform measures.

Border ports and other allied cities are also accelerating their integration into the free trade pilot zone creation project. Chifeng Bonded Logistics Center has independently established the Chifeng Global Shopping cross-border e-commerce platform, promoting a further upgrade in residents' consumption. Ulanqab City is continuously advancing the application for the comprehensive bonded zone, driving the implementation of projects such as the Northern Land Port cross-border e-commerce supervision zone and the road customs supervision zone, laying the foundation for building an international land port.

"Establishing a free trade pilot zone will provide strong impetus for accelerating the development of an open economy, strengthening regional cooperation and interaction, actively integrating into the dual circulation of domestic and international markets, and promoting the upgrading of China's construction as a major bridgehead for opening up to the north," said Guo Zhouming.

Strong platforms enhance openness and level of development. Currently, in the vast Gobi Desert on the China-Mongolia border, scaffolding stands tall, excavators roar, and construction sites are bustling with activity. The China-Mongolia Erenhot-Zamyn-Uud Economic Cooperation Zone is rapidly advancing. Once completed, it will become the third cross-border economic cooperation zone jointly established by China and its neighboring countries, accelerating practical cooperation between China and Mongolia in trade, logistics, manufacturing, tourism, services, and other fields.

Strengthening platform construction is a key approach for Inner Mongolia to expand its opening up. Currently, Inner Mongolia has three national economic and technological development zones in Hohhot, Bayannur, and Hulunbuir, as well as key development and opening-up pilot zones and border economic cooperation zones in Manzhouli and Erenhot. Hohhot, Chifeng, Manzhouli, and Ordos have been approved as national comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce. The China-Mongolia Erenhot-Zamyn Uud Economic Cooperation Zone has been established, and the roles of the national foreign trade transformation bases, as well as the comprehensive bonded zones in Manzhouli, Hohhot, and Ordos, are becoming increasingly prominent.

From the distant camel bells along the ancient Silk Road to the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative benefiting the grasslands, from the China-Europe freight trains connecting Asia, Europe, and the entire world to the establishment of various platforms for opening up, Inner Mongolia's comprehensive opening-up framework is becoming increasingly well-developed. The "transportation network" connecting the interior and exterior is becoming denser, and the "relationship network" for regional cooperation is expanding. Inner Mongolia is using practical actions to continue the millennium-old Silk Road song, writing a new, more melodious chapter.

Source: Outlook Reporting Journalists: Liu Wei, An Lumeng, Wang Jing, Zhang Lina

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