Khorgos, about 90 kilometres west of Yining near the Kazakh border, has grown rapidly as a special economic zone and international trade hub. The combination of a China–Kazakhstan free-trade zone, a new railway connection to Kazakhstan, and Chinese investment in the Belt and Road Initiative has turned a small border crossing into a significant commercial centre within a few years.
For the traveller, Khorgos offers a glimpse of how the Silk Road functions in the 21st century: lorries queuing at the border, container yards, a duty-free shopping district where Chinese tourists buy Kazakh goods and Kazakh traders buy Chinese electronics. It is not a beautiful place, but it is a genuinely interesting one — a hinge between two economic systems and two cultures, animated by exactly the commercial logic that drove the original Silk Road.
The border crossing is open to third-country nationals under normal tourist visa conditions. Crossing into Kazakhstan through Khorgos is a straightforward way to continue west if your itinerary takes you there.