An aerial drone photo taken on June 3, 2026 shows water being pumped into the Madao hub on the Pinglu Canal in south China"s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo by Zhao Zhenyu/Xinhua)

　　Freight trains linking south China"s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region with Vietnam now operate on a daily basis, up from the previous schedule of three days a week, carrying electronics and machinery south while bringing tropical fruit, including durian and mangosteen, to the north.

　　Latest data from Nanning Customs show Guangxi"s trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reached 248.21 billion yuan (about 36.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months of 2026, up 2.5 percent year on year and a record for this period. Trade with neighboring Vietnam, notably, rose 3.3 percent to 183.71 billion yuan during the same period.

　　At the national level, China-ASEAN trade reached 4.34 trillion yuan in the first half of 2026, an increase of 18.2 percent from a year earlier. Trade in intermediate goods, namely parts, components and other production inputs, rose 24.5 percent to 2.86 trillion yuan in this period, accounting for roughly two-thirds of the total bilateral trade.

　　Lyu Daliang, spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs, attributed the steady growth in intermediate-goods trade to the deepening integration and interlinkages across industrial and value chains between China and ASEAN.