For Pakistani businessman Muhammad Abbas, Managing Director of Pakistan Northern Gems, the Kashi (Kashgar)-Central and South Asia Commodity Fair, aka Kashi Fair, is familiar ground. A veteran of the natural gemstones and precious metal jewelry trade, he has attended all 15 fairs since the event's launch in 2005.

"I'm an old friend of the Kashi Fair," Abbas told Xinjiang Today as the 15th edition of the fair kicked off in the city of Kashi on August 15. The fair attracted more than 1,300 companies from 40 countries and regions and 26 international trade delegations.

Abbas has seen the event grow in both size and impact. Today, it is a vital platform for trade between China and Central, South and West Asia, extending to Europe. So far, the fair has attracted over 38,000 enterprises from 56 countries and regions, generating a cumulative trade volume of more than 480 billion yuan ($66.8 billion).

At the fair, a single product carries the DNA of multiple civilizations. The city is the meeting point of the northern and southern routes of the ancient Silk Road, and a gateway for the exchange of goods and ideas between China and its neighboring countries. Marco Polo described the city as one of beauty and abundance, with gardens, vineyards and merchants from every corner of the world converging here, while traders and products from the city fanned out across the ancient world.

Through the fair, Abbas has built a wide network of clients, manufacturers, distributors and long-term partners. His business has grown with the fair, and today he has a company in Urumqi and a store in Beijing.

Last year, he supplied five tons of crystal quartz to a company in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province in south China, for jewelry production. This year, a company from Chongqing showed interest in his jewelry, with plans to sign a deal after the fair concluded on August 19. Pakistan was a country of honor at this year's fair. For the first time, it had two guest countries of honor, the other being Kyrgyzstan.

The 40,000-square-meter fair area had three main sections, namely investment, international trade and domestic trade. It was divided into segments including digital tech, aerospace, new energy, specialty agriculture and tourism-related products. The fair also hosted several events, including 10 industry matchmaking sessions, a major investment promotion conference and two trade forums focused on Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan.

"The Kashi Fair is an open platform to deepen strategic cooperation, showcase the unique strengths of every participating country and region and ensure all parties achieve more meaningful outcomes in international exchange and cooperation," Nie Zhuang, Vice Chair of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Secretary of the Communist Party of China Kashi Prefectural Committee, said at the opening ceremony.

Partners in progress 

In addition to the international exhibitors, there were also a wide range of products from other regions of China, including both time-honored Chinese brands and cutting-edge technologies.

In 1997, the Central Government established a "pairing assistance" program for Xinjiang, with state officials and enterprises from more developed regions channeling financial, technical and human resource support across many sectors. In recent years, Xinjiang's growing industrialization has made assistance initiatives increasingly mutually beneficial.

Shanghai Minlong Industry Co., dealing in dried food products, founded the Xinjiang Minlongda Dried Fruit Industry Co. in 2010 to establish a presence in Kashi. Shanghai Minlong has since invested 200 million yuan ($27.8 million) in building three factories in Kashi to deep process local specialty agricultural products.

In the past, many local farmers sold raw goods in bulk, according to Sun Lei, one of the founders of Minlongda. "We carry out deep-processing right at the origin here, producing items such as chocolate-coated almonds or freeze-drying fruit to meet the demands of today's more refined consumers," Sun told Xinjiang Today.

Across a narrow walkway, a crowd admired canvas shoes printed with the signature Atlas pattern, a local fabric design famed for its rich colors. The pattern, rooted in centuries-old tradition, has been reimagined to create Chinese heritage brands, fusing nostalgia with modern fashion.

The Shanghai-based shoe brand Warrior has created a collection incorporating traditional Xinjiang motifs into modern designs. Through this collection, Xinjiang's diverse and vibrant culture offers consumers across the country a distinctive aesthetic experience, while also helping the brand enhance its image by showcasing cultural inclusivity and creativity. Two styles from the collection have entered mass production and will soon be available on the brand's official Tmall store.

A rising hub 

With five land ports connecting to eight countries, Kashi is the starting point of both the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway. By integrating multiple special zones—including a Pilot Free Trade Zone, an Economic Development Zone, a Comprehensive Bonded Zone and a Cross-Border E-Commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone—the city is creating a layered system of incentives that continuously elevates its openness to global business.

In 2024, Kashi established China's first IRU-certified TIR assembly center, a customs-

supervised facility where goods are consolidated and sealed for international road transport. According to local customs authorities, the center has cut processing times from 3-4 days to just 6-8 hours, increased clearance efficiency by 50 percent and lowered logistics costs by 30 percent.

"Transportation is no longer an issue, especially with customs procedures," said Manzoor Ilahi, coordinator of the Hunza Chamber of Commerce, which promotes trade between the Hunza Valley in north Pakistan and China. Ilahi's role involves facilitating China-Pakistan Economic Corridor cooperation within the China-Pakistan Border Trade Zone.

Ilahi attended the Kashi Fair to promote products such as mango juice, dairy cream, biscuits and decorative salt items. At the same time, he explored opportunities to import Chinese goods in the future, particularly solar equipment and lithium batteries.

On August 15, the China-Pakistan Border Trade Zone signed a cooperation agreement with the Hunza Chamber of Commerce to establish a warehouse in Pakistan.

This new warehouse creates a major advantage for Pakistani businesses importing from China. As Cui Xinyu, president of the zone's operating company, stated, the warehouse is a "breakthrough in bilateral trade cooperation." The facility will act as a dedicated hub for displaying and distributing Chinese products, which means lower costs, faster delivery and smoother access to a wide range of Chinese brands for buyers across Pakistan.

The China-Pakistan Border Trade Zone, located in Tashikuergan (Taxkorgan or Tashkurgan) Tajik Autonomous County near the Tajikistan border, operates under China's border resident mutual trade policy, which allows residents living within 20 km of land borders to exchange goods with neighboring countries' residents at approved trading points with a duty-free allowance of 8,000 yuan ($1,114) per person per day. Under this mechanism, starting from 2019, border residents from the two countries have built stable trade ties and friendships.

Kashi has also made progress in sister-city diplomacy. During this year's Kashi Fair, Kashi Prefecture and its cities and counties signed seven new sister-city partnership agreements with cities in Uzbekistan and Laos, expanding its network of international partnerships to 21.

(Print Edition Title: Beyond the Bazaar) 

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