In the Service Hall at the Shiquanhe Customs Burang Work Site, 57-year-old Nepali businesswoman Zandare Wadi is handling her customs clearance, using fluent Tibetan to communicate with the staff.
Burang County is located in southern Ngari Prefecture in Tibet, China. It shares a border with India and Nepal on a stretch of more than 400 kilometers. The local Burang Port is the only port for foreign trade in Ngari; it is also the main entryway for pious Indians and Nepalese to worship the holy Mt. Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, making it an important port for political, economical, cultural, and religious exchanges between China, India and Nepal. In the late 1950s, the Central Government approved the establishment of an international market at Burang, and in 1995 it was approved to become a national second-level port for China.
57-year-old Nepali businesswoman Zandare Wadi (second from left) gets her customs clearance inside the Service Hall of the Ngari Shiquanhe Customs Burang Work Site.
37 years ago, Zandare Wadi came with her mother from Nepal to the Burang Tangga Border Trade Market to do business. Here, she witnessed the developments and changes at the Tangga Border Trade Market.
According to Pu Dong, director of the Burang Port Administration Committee, the Tangga Trade Market is over 500 years old. After the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, the Burang Port Border Trade Market has undergone several stages of construction and development.