Tour of smuggling and gambling in Dongxing

Xiao Chong leads a double life in Dongxing, the southern part of Guangxi that shares a border with Vietnam.

He is a travel agent by day and a smuggler after midnight.

Xiao Chong escorts tourists in the daytime to the other side of the Beilun River, which runs between Dongxing and Mong Cai.

The river, less than 60 metres wide even in the rainy season, is spanned by a white bridge that was destroyed during the Vietnam War. The bridge and Dongxing were rebuilt from scratch in the '90s, when the mainland economy boomed.

When night falls, Xiao Chong and his gang wait at the river bank for sampans loaded with beef, wild animal meat or redwood. Hastily, they unload the cargo from the boats and transfer it to trucks parked along the river.

Quiet resumes after 2am.

The cross-border trade is said to be the livelihood of 90 per cent of the population on both sides of the river. That could explain why property prices in this tiny city of only 110,000 are as high as those in Guangxi's major centres.