Across boundaries, beyond trade

A millennium of connection

The vibrant commercial relationship between the two places stretches back much further.

"Cross-border exchanges between the two cities can be dated back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)," said Hong Hongxia, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Erenhot Municipal Government.

During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Yilin Post Station was set up in what is now the Erenhot area. Merchants would stop there to rest, exchange goods, and catch up on the latest news.

"Back then, the Erenhot and Zamyn-Uud regions served as key neighboring stopovers along the Silk Road, the ancient Great Tea Route, and other major trade routes, fostering spontaneous local trade for over two hundred years that laid a natural groundwork for deep people-to-people connections," Hong said.

The modern bond is inseparable from the railway. In January 1956, the Beijing-Ulaanbaatar-Moscow international railway line went into full operation.

It catalyzed the founding of Erenhot as a town on the Chinese side of the border and the establishment of Zamyn-Uud as a village on the Mongolian side, with the latter becoming the first railway hub for entry into Mongolia.

In 1991, the double-track railways connecting China and Mongolia were linked up within Zamyn-Uud, strengthening the logistics lifeline of the two cities on the Gobi Desert, Hong said.

"In 1992, the highway port opened for two-way traffic, normalizing civilian trade, family visits, and tourism. The foundation for sister-city cooperation was firmly established even then."

In 2019, Erenhot and Zamyn-Uud officially signed a sister-city agreement, making them a unique pair of border-port sister cities. They are not just neighbors but a model of friendly cooperation between China and Mongolia, Hong emphasized.

Official data from Erenhot underscore this closeness: Erenhot port handles over 70 percent of personnel exchanges between China and Mongolia and more than 80 percent of China's exports of livelihood supplies to Mongolia. Last year alone, the port recorded nearly 2.82 million border crossings — almost 8,000 people every day.