China News Service, Dongxing, Guangxi, March 5th: Title: The first high-speed rail Spring Festival transportation on the China-Vietnam border: there is an endless stream of passengers as it draws to a close

  China News Service reporter Yang Chen

  The 2024 Spring Festival is coming to an end, but for Dongxing City in Guangxi, a small town on the China-Vietnam border that just opened a high-speed rail at the end of last year, the flow of return trips to Vietnam to visit relatives and the flow of Vietnamese students returning to school during the beginning of the semester are superimposed, and the busyness is still going on.

  Recently, reporters saw at Dongxing City Station that the D8420 train from Dongxing City Station to Liuzhou Station, which was originally scheduled to leave at 11:19, just passed 10:00, and passengers carrying large and small bags were entering the station one after another to wait.

Among them were local tourists who entered the station with their Chinese ID cards, and Vietnamese people who took the bus with their passports in hand.

The China Railway 12306 APP system shows that all tickets for the whole day have been sold out.

Recently, a large number of Chinese and foreign passengers have queued up at Dongxing Station, waiting to enter the station.

Photo by Yang Chen

  At the entrance of the station, Xiao Huali from Wuzhou, Guangxi, swiped his ID card and entered the station automatically, then stood aside waiting for his mother.

Mother Nguyen Thi Thuy held a Vietnamese passport and stood in line at the artificial passage.

  "My mother is Vietnamese. Before the epidemic, we would go back to Hanoi, Vietnam to visit relatives every year. This is the first time we enter the country through Dongxing Port and return by high-speed rail." Xiao Huali told reporters that in the past, they would first take the high-speed rail from Wuzhou to Nanning. It took a 3-hour transfer by bus to Pingxiang City, and after leaving the country at Youyiguan Port, we took the Vietnamese shuttle bus back to Hanoi. The entire trip took nearly two days.

"This time we want to try a new route to make mother's return home shorter and faster."

  She married in China in the 1990s and lived in Wuzhou for a long time, which enabled Ruan Thi Tou to speak fluent vernacular.

"This is my return to Vietnam after 4 years. I stayed at home for two weeks and I felt very happy and friendly." Although they parted after a brief reunion, Nguyen Thi Tou was not too sad, "Now Dongxing The high-speed rail is now open. We traveled from Hanoi to Dongxing last night. This morning we took the high-speed rail for two hours to Nanning East Station. We can transfer to the high-speed rail to Wuzhou at the same station and arrive home around three in the afternoon. It is very convenient. Everything is getting better. distance is not a problem."

  In recent years, as the economic, trade, cultural and educational cooperation between China and Vietnam has continued to grow, a large number of Vietnamese students have gone to China to study.

It is the beginning of the school year, and there are many Vietnamese students studying abroad at Dongxing Station. Ding Shihui and Nguyen Shixiong from Mong Cai, Vietnam, are one of them.

Recently, Vietnamese student Ruan Shixiong was preparing to enter the station at Dongxing City Station to take the bus back to school.

Photo by Yang Chen

  Mong Cai in Vietnam and Dongxing City in Guangxi are connected by sea and land and face each other across the river.

Ding Shihui and Ruan Shixiong grew up together. When they were young, they visited Dongxing with their families many times, so they came up with the idea of ​​studying in China together.

Today, the two are freshmen majoring in cross-border e-commerce at Tianjin University and tourism management at Guilin University of Technology respectively.

  "E-commerce and tourism between Vietnam and China have developed rapidly in recent years, and the cooperation prospects are also very good. We hope that by studying in China, we can better participate in Vietnam-China cooperation and exchanges in the future." Ding Shihui said in fluent English Mandarin told reporters that China's high-speed rail network now extends to the Vietnam-China border, which not only makes his way to study more convenient, but also gives him confidence and expectations for the future. "I hope that Vietnam's high-speed rail will also be connected to China's high-speed rail network in the future. Then It will stimulate greater potential for cooperation.”

  Information provided by the Guangxi Railway Department on the 5th showed that as of March 4 since the Spring Festival this year, a total of 460 Vietnamese passengers had traveled between Nanning and Dongxing.

Currently, a total of 3 pairs of EMUs are running between Nanning City and Dongxing City, and the trains are fully occupied during peak periods.

  The surge in Vietnamese tourists also gave Yang Huiting, a police officer from the Fangchenggang North Station Police Station of the Beihai Railway Public Security Department, who majored in Vietnamese, an opportunity to display her talents.

During the Spring Festival travel period, Yang Huiting was arranged to carry out volunteer services at Dongxing City Station and Fangchenggang North Station. She explained and promoted railway safety knowledge in Vietnamese, distributed bilingual reminder cards, and guided Vietnamese passengers to handle railway travel-related businesses on 12306 APP, serving Vietnam Provide convenient assistance to local passengers.

  "After Dongxing City Station opened, many Vietnamese chose to travel by train, and I had more opportunities to use Vietnamese." Yang Huiting said that the Fangchenggang North Station Police Station has organized police to strengthen the use and verification of passports and visas for Vietnamese passengers. Relevant knowledge training is provided so that the police can skillfully provide Vietnamese passengers with 12306 APP ticket purchase, passport, real-name bus and other guidance services.

  Yang Huiting said that in the next step, based on the characteristics of China-Vietnam border port stations, the railway police will also actively coordinate with the railway department to launch Chinese-Vietnamese bilingual broadcasts at Dongxing City Station, Fangchenggang North Station and other stations to further improve the service level for Vietnamese passengers.

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