A trade and tourism fair will be held in two places on the Sino-Vietnamese border November 21-23, trade officials said Wednesday.

The fair will be jointly hosted by the Guangxi branch of the China Council for Promotion of International Trade, the Pingxiang city government of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and the trade and tourism bureau of Lang Son Province, Vietnam.

The fair will take place in Pingxiang's Puzhai border trade center on the Chinese side and in a free trade zone in Lang Son Province on the Vietnamese side.

During the fair, activities such as the first Sino-Vietnamese economic cooperation forum, a contest to select Miss Friendship of Sino-Vietnamese border, and exhibitions to demonstrate folkways from the border areas will be held.

China shares a 1,020-kilometer border with Vietnam at Guangxi. Pingxiang is the most convenient land pass for other Chinese provinces to enter Vietnam and other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Opening of the border areas is of special significance to Guangxi's entire opening-up cause, said a local official.

Sources from Guangxi's regional tourism administration said that from 1993 to 1999, Guangxi had 16 million tourists, including 9.87 Chinese and 6.13 Vietnamese, and earned 800 million yuan (US$96.4 million) from border tourism service. A number of cross-border tourism routes have been inaugurated.

(Xinhua 10/25/2000)