China-Kazakhstan zone creates jobs, stimulates trade

URUMQI - Marina has to cross an international border every day for work, but the one-hour drive from her home in Yarkent, Kazakhstan, to China's border town Khorgos is worth it, considering her monthly pay is 2,700 yuan ($400), an income above the average in her hometown.

As day breaks, Marina gets out of bed, has breakfast and hops into a cab to start a day of busy work at the China-Kazakhstan Khorgos Frontier International Cooperation Center. She began to work as an interpreter at a Chinese trade firm two months ago.

Marina receives foreign clients and coordinates with relevant government departments of Kazakhstan. Before landing her job, she studied Chinese for a year in Ili, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, in Northwest China.