Singles Day, China boom lift Vietnamese workers

NANNING - It is the busiest time of the year at Nguyen Thien Kam Wan's store in Dongxing, a Chinese border city. Ahead of Singles Day, the Vietnamese businesswoman has been shipping Vietnamese specialties to Chinese buyers, who placed orders for more than 2,000 bags of dried jackfruit alone.

"It is larger than our sales in a normal month," she says.

For years, Nguyen Thien Kam Wan has crossed the border from the Vietnamese city of Mong Cai to Dongxing in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region every morning, returning home after work. More than 10,000 Vietnamese cross-border workers fill a variety of jobs in Dongxing.