Hunchun city boosts income with ever-expanding global connections

Hunchun, a city in Northeast China's Jilin province, has become a key hub for China's Belt and Road Initiative, increasing its income from regional trade by launching more links with neighboring cities and countries.

The city is located in Jilin province's Changchun-Jilin-Tumen Development Pilot Zone, close to the Sea of Japan, and borders Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Founded in 2009, the pilot zone aims to boost cross-border cooperation in the Tumen River Delta, which straddles the borders of China, Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

A route linking Hunchun with Port of Zarubino in Russia and the Republic of Korea's Busan via a land-and-sea transshipment route launched in 2015. The route bears the mission to support China's opening-up to countries and regions north of its borders.

The Hunchun-Rajin-Ningbo shipping route, which passes Rajin Port in the DPRK, relaunched on Feb 25, 2017 after a six-year hiatus. More than 3,000 metric tons of goods in about 120 standard containers were shipped on Feb 25, 2017 from Hunchun.

It was the first time that Hunchun had offered container transport services.

Also the starting point for a route passing Zarubino to Sakhalin Oblast in Russia, Hunchun's links support trade in bulk commodities.

The city is continuing to add more routes to its network. It launched two trial operations in 2017 to transport aluminum ingots to Japan. It also submitted an application to launch shipping routes to coastal areas in South China via the Port of Zarubino.

With more routes launched, goods produced in Jilin and the surrounding provinces can be exported with greater ease and efficiency. An increasing number of goods, such as clothing, mineral water, wood products and crops, are exported to other parts of the world from Hunchun.

Statistics from the local authorities showed that the value of imports and exports in Hunchun totaled 9.96 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) last year, increasing 11.7 percent year-on-year.

Hunchun's GDP hit 14.46 billion yuan in 2017, increasing 0.2 percent year-on-year. Its industrial output value was 38.08 billion yuan, increasing 6.6 percent from the year before.