Khorgos National Gate Visitor Area 霍尔果斯国门正规参访区

About Khorgos National Gate Visitor Area

The municipal register records that the Khorgos China–Kazakhstan international cultural tourism area is at No. 1 Longhai Road in Khorgos City, covers 3.99 square kilometres and was rated a national AAAA-level tourist attraction in 2014, and that it is made up of the Chinese side of the China–Kazakhstan Khorgos International Border Cooperation Centre, the Guomen scenic area — the national gate culture exhibition hall — and the Central Asian Style Street, in a list ending 等. It records that the cooperation centre is a cross-border economic and trade zone at the two countries' Khorgos port, agreed by their leaders, formally signed in 2005 and the first cross-border economic cooperation zone China established with another country, covering 5.6 square kilometres, of which 3.43 are on the Chinese side and 2.17 on the Kazakh side. It records that the China–Kazakhstan connecting corridor is 18.81 m high, the figure chosen to commemorate the port's opening to traffic in 1881, and that its form is a Chinese square ding whose shape also reads as the letter H, for harmony, cooperation and peace.

The register records that the Guomen scenic area, with the exhibition hall, holds the culture exhibition hall, the No. 324 boundary marker and the Qing-era No. 18 stone tablet, in a list ending 等, and that it is a Party-spirit education base, a red-education position and an autonomous-region demonstration base for ethnic unity. The exhibition hall, it records, stands at the fifth-generation national gate, covers 4,300 square metres and is a comprehensive venue for patriotic, national-defence, red and Party-spirit education, made up of five parts: the prologue hall, the thousand-year post station, formal customs opening, the century-old port, and the epilogue hall. The register records that the area was rated an autonomous-region red classic scenic area in 2021, an autonomous-region special museum in May 2023, an autonomous-region science-popularisation education base in December 2023 and an autonomous-region study-travel base in 2024. Beside the scenic area, it records, is the Central Asian Style Street, whose buildings mix Han-Tang, Central Asian, European and modern styles and which covers shopping, bars, food and performances, and on that street a 108-m sightseeing tower from which the plains of Kazakhstan are visible, rated an autonomous-region tourism and leisure district in 2024.

The People's Daily records that Khorgos City sits at the mouth of the Ili river valley in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, borders Kazakhstan and has been a channel of trade between East and West since ancient times, and that in Mongolian the name means "the place the camel caravan passed", a station where caravans rested. It records that more than 1,300 years ago, in the Sui and Tang periods, this was a necessary route for caravans to and from Central Asia and an important post on the new northern route of the ancient Silk Road, that in 1881 it formally became a trading port, and that in 2012 the cooperation centre, formed of adjacent areas on both sides of the boundary line, was formally closed and put into operation. It records that the two countries each keep one entrance to the centre, that citizens of various countries may enter without a visa on a passport or exit-entry permit, that a walk of about a quarter of an hour into the centre brings a visitor to the China–Kazakhstan connecting corridor from which Kazakhstan can be reached without obstruction, and that this is what visitors call "crossing a border in a second". The paper records more than 5,000 shops and about 1,200 traders in the centre selling goods from more than 40 countries, which it describes as the largest cross-border tourism consumer shopping area in northwest China, and that Ili prefecture has three national first-class ports — Khorgos, Dulata and Muzart — as well as the country's first cross-border economic cooperation zone.

What to look for

• The Guomen culture exhibition hall (国门文化展示馆), which the municipal register records at the fifth-generation national gate, 4,300 square metres, in five parts: the prologue hall, the thousand-year post station, formal customs opening, the century-old port and the epilogue hall.
• The No. 324 boundary marker and the Qing-era No. 18 stone tablet, which the municipal register lists among what the Guomen scenic area holds.
• The China–Kazakhstan connecting corridor, which the municipal register records as 18.81 m high, a figure chosen to commemorate the port's opening in 1881.
• The China–Kazakhstan Khorgos International Border Cooperation Centre, which the municipal register records as the first cross-border economic cooperation zone China established with another country.
• The Central Asian Style Street beside the scenic area, which the municipal register records mixing Han-Tang, Central Asian, European and modern building styles.
• The 108-m sightseeing tower on that street, which the municipal register records as giving a view over the plains of Kazakhstan.
• The crossing itself — the People's Daily records that a walk of about a quarter of an hour into the cooperation centre reaches the connecting corridor, from which Kazakhstan can be reached without obstruction.

Location & getting there

Getting to Khorgos National Gate Visitor Area

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 霍尔果斯国门正规参访区 with 伊犁哈萨克自治州 and 霍尔果斯市.