Abstract: | Xinjiang, an autonomous region in northwest China, is home to vast deserts and mountains and many ethnic minor-ity groups. The ancient Silk Road trade route linking China and the Middle East once passed through Xinjiang, and its legacy can still be seen everywhere. The dry port of Horgos today breathes new life into this earliest of routes.
Horgos, once a sleepy back-water straddling the border of Xinjiang's Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture and Kazakhstan, has been transformed as a key part of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Its strategic position has turned the city into the one of the largest dry ports in the world and a starting point for the China-Europe railway. And demand is on the rise. |