On June 12th, Urumqi Diwopu International Airport welcomed cherries imported from Kyrgyzstan. Since the beginning of the summer, cherries from China’s neighboring countries in Central Asia, such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, have been taking advantage of convenient flight routes. They were flown into China, taking the Chinese fruit markets by storm. They are very popular in Beijing, Xinjiang and Guangzhou.
Thanks to short transits and plentiful flights, sweet cherries from Central Asian countries were first introduced to Xinjiang by air. In the local supermarkets and fruit shops in Urumqi, these imported sweet cherries are labeled as “Che Li Zi”. They are beautifully packaged, big and firm, sold at the price of about 100 yuan per kilogram. China Southern Airlines Xinjiang Branch, the only Chinese airline that provides flight services connecting Central Asian and Xinjiang, imported 540 tons of goods from China’s neighboring countries in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 72%.
Source: Xinhuanet