Carrying shoulder poles, gunnysacks and bamboo baskets, thousands of Vietnamese merchants stand in long lines every morning, anxiously awaiting customs clearance into southwest China's Yunnan Province.

As soon as the border gate opens at eight o'clock, they begin running as fast as they can towards China's customs building. Behind the pedestrians are hundreds more merchants with rattling bicycles, tricycles and long flat-bed carts.

They come to Hekou county to buy and sell everything from fruit to clothing. The race across the border can take up to an hour every morning.

"Too many people come to China to make money. You cannot lag far behind others, or you will have to wait in long queues in the customs building," said 23-year-old Vietnamese vendor Bui Van Son in fluent Chinese.

"Here I can earn money easily, almost the same amount as that of white-collars in Vietnam in a good month," Bui said. He has been selling ornaments and trinkets in Hekou, which is opposite to Vietnam's Lao Cai City, for three years.

Bustling trade can be seen in almost every border gate and border city between China and Vietnam.

At different border markets, shops with bilingual signboards are packed with an array of Chinese antiques, Vietnamese jade ware and even French perfume. Mandarin, different Chinese provincial dialects and Vietnamese blend into harmony.

Here, any mention of warfare between the two Asian neighbors three decades ago is carefully avoided.

"We are not concerned about politics, but business only. Friendly exchanges are the most important thing," said a Chinese woman surnamed Lu. She lives in the border city of Donging, in southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, but she sells garments in a rented Vietnamese shop in Mong Cai City.

Such avoidance is also prevalent in border troops.

"We greet each other when we come across while patrolling along the borderline -- saying hello in simple English, Chinese, Vietnamese or barely a gesture," said Bai Jianming, a Chinese military in Yunnan.

"Now and then, we smoke or have a chat together," Bai said.

The two sides will hold scheduled and sometimes even unscheduled talks during which disputes between armies and civilians are coped with. The informal process eliminates military confrontation.

"We will discuss issues relating to the illegal cross-border activities such as lumbering, hunting and farming," said Liu Jianbao, a military officer with the Yunnan border troops. "We will also invite each other to come over to the other's land for celebrations during holidays."

"The dialogue mechanism helps ease tension and boost mutual trust. Behind the mechanism is nothing but the good relations between China and Vietnam," he added.

Since the two countries normalized ties in the 1990s, leaders have maintained frequent contact and cooperation.

In 1999, Communist Party leaders of the two countries issued a joint statement, setting forth the principle of building long-term, stable, future-oriented, good-neighborly and all-around cooperative bilateral relations.

In April 2003, Vietnamese Communist Party General-Secretary Nong Duc Manh paid a working visit to China. Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held talks with Manh separately. The leaders pledged that the two countries and their peoples would be good neighbors, good friends, good comrades and good companions for ever.

For example, on the first day of this year, the two countries began regular train service between Nanning, capital of Guangxi region, and Hanoi.

China and Vietnam finished the demarcation of land borders at the end of last year and are going to celebrate the event next week.

Regarding the South China Sea, the two countries agreed to safeguard its stability, and not to take any action that would complicate or escalate disputes, according to joint statement issued in Beijing in October last year when Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited China.

The two sides also agreed to collaborate on oceanic research, environmental protection, meteorological and hydrological forecast, oil exploration, and information exchanges by the two armed forces.

Improved political relations brought about good businesses. China is now Vietnam's biggest trading partner.

According to China's Commerce Ministry, two-way trade amounted to 19.46 billion U.S. dollars, indicating a growth of 28.8 percent year on year. The two countries vowed to raise trade to 25 billion dollars by 2010.

Two places helping to reach that goal are Dongxing and Mong Cai. The two cities are separated by the Beilun River which is a shared tariff-free area for goods under 3,000 tonnes.

The policy boosts business enthusiasm of frontier inhabitants, said Zhang Shaoming, a military officer garrisoned here, pointing to hundreds of trading cargo ships on the river.

"The thoughts of the common people are very simple. They only believe in real benefits. What they treasure most is nothing but peace," he said.

Source: Xinhua