A forum on promoting cross-border tourism between Vietnam's Mong Cai and Guangxi's Dongxing was held in Mong Cai on Dec 1, gathering government officials, and industry representatives from both countries.

Mong Cai and Guangxi's Dongxing are neighboring cities that are separated by a river. Previous cooperation between the two cities has included the establishment of a joint cross-border tourism model, which focusing on creating high-quality tourism routes, developing flagship tourism products, promoting tourism through advertising, enforcing market regulations, promoting cultural exchanges, as well as providing training.

Vietnamese officials highlighted that China is Vietnam's largest source of tourists, accounting for approximately 30 percent of its total number of international tourists. Vietnam is also one of the top five foreign destinations for Chinese tourists. In the first 11 months of 2023, the number of international tourists to Vietnam exceeded 11.2 million, with over 1.5 million of them coming from China.

In recent years, Dongxing and Mong Cai have been expanding their cooperation into other sectors, such as trade. As a first-class checkpoint in China, Dongxing Checkpoint had over 12 million inbound and outbound passengers in 2018.