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Trade increases between Kunming and Southeast Asia
 Updated:2018-12-28 17:32:05    Yunnan Gateway

In the first nine months of 2018, according to statistics released by Kunming Customs, Kunming achieved a total import and export trade value of 9.575 billion US dollars. This statistic represents a year-on-year increase of 93 percent, ranking first among Chinese provincial capital cities in terms of consecutive-month growth.

In the first three quarters of 2018, trade grew by 166.1 percent between Kunming and countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. In the fruit shops of Kunming, people can buy fresh tropical fruits from Southeast Asia including durian from Thailand and pitaya from Vietnam. Roses for sale in the flower shops of Bangkok and Singapore might have be growing in the fields of Kunming the day before.

The flower stalls in Dounan, Kunming combine to create the largest fresh cut flower market in Asia. Last year, 6.5 billion fresh cut flowers, equivalent to one flower for every person in the world, went from here to more than 50 countries and regions. Hua Mingsheng, now in his fifties, is a first generation flower grower in Dounan Village. In the 1980s, when he first began to grow gladiola, he was a laughing stock for other villagers.

"Now we have expanded our business to markets all over the world," Hua said proudly. In the late 1990s, with the Dounan flower market developing rapidly, the flowers of Southeast Asia also entered the market. "We are peers, but we do not exclude foreign flower merchants. We have even become good friends. We learn from and cooperate with each other in order to expand our businesses." 

(Translated from Xinhua; Photos from Yunnan Daily)