Trucks line up along a street in Gyirong county in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Photo: Li Hao/GT

A festival on border trade and tourism will kick off on Sunday in Gyirong, Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, which is expected to boost regional economic cooperation between China and South Asia countries.

The second International Border Trade and Tourism Festival will attract more than 300 exhibitors from China, Nepal and other Southern Asia countries, bringing ethnic crafts, textiles, clothes, featured food and agricultural products to Gyirong, according to a statement the county government sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.

The festival will feature culture, border trade, tourism and investment. Activities such as product exhibition, exotic performances, concerts and hiking are included in the festival.

Organizers invited Tibetan-style singers and dancers and performing groups from Nepal.

The festival will last until October 25.

Gyirong, a county administrated by Xigaze city and bordering Nepal, has long been an important hub. In 1962, China set up customs at Gyirong. Border trade reached 3.4 billion yuan ($480 million) in 2018.

The China-Nepal Cross Border Railway is also expected to extend the current Lhasa-Xigaze link to the border of Gyirong, and then further to Kathmandu, capital of Nepal. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping returned to Beijing Sunday evening after a state visit to Nepal. 

During his visit, leaders of the two countries reached a broad understanding through an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relationship and regional and international issues of common concern, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"Gyirong is the frontier and key spot of China opening to the South Asia. It connects the Silk Road Economic Belt and Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor," Da Chun, Party chief of Gyirong county, said at a promotional conference for the festival in Lhasa on Sunday.

He said that Gyirong expected to be a modern zone in cross-border economic cooperation in the Tibet region and the whole of South Asia.

Zhang Jing, owner of the Jinyu Hotel in Gyirong, told the Global Times that all the 39 rooms in the hotel had been booked out about two weeks ago thanks to the festival.

Zhang, from Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, came to Gyirong more than 10 years ago and has run her hotel business for three years. The majority of her guests are pilgrims from India and Nepal.

"The business of the hotel is getting better and better. We believe there is a bright future for Gyirong in developing trade and tourism," Zhang said.

Ding Yueyi, a Gyirong resident, said she hoped the festival could promote the border town to attract more tourists from other regions of China and probably the world as the county has a nice view of Mount Qomolangma, known internationally as Mount Everest.