The Mong Cai City authority in Quang Ninh Province, northern Vietnam has proposed the provincial administration allow self-drive tours from China via the Bac Luan 2 international border gate in the area.

The move came after the Dongxing border gate authority in Dongxing City of China’s Guangxi Province wrote to Mong Cai City suggesting arranging a lane for people traveling between the two countries via the Bac Luan 2 border gate, in a bid to ease the passenger overload facing the Bac Luan 1 international border gate, a city official told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Saturday.

The Vietnamese border city also proposed the provincial administration allow it to team up with the relevant agencies and hold talks with the Chinese side over the arrangement of self-drive tours.

Previously, Hong Gai Tourist and Services JSC had been assigned to pilot self-drive tours from China to Quang Ninh through the Mong Cai international border gate, said the company’s director Luong Ngoc Bich.

In August 2019, the Vietnam Government Office gave the green light to Quang Ninh’s proposed extension of self-drive tours from China to the province’s Ha Long City via the Mong Cai border gate until June 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak then left the pilot tours suspended until now.

Self-drive tours from China to Quang Ninh were available in 2016, from which five- to seven-seater cars from Vietnam were permitted to reach Guangxi’s City of Guilin with a travel distance of some 600 kilometers.

Meanwhile, cars from China could travel about 180 kilometers to enter Quang Ninh’s Ha Long City.

Chinese tourists of self-drive tours to Vietnam were required to get visas and conduct entry procedures as per the Southeast Asian nation’s prevailing regulations.

As initially planned, around 300 cars with less than nine seats from each side were allowed to travel between the two countries per month, with each self-driving trip lasting about five days.

Most self-drive Chinese tourists visiting Ha Long City at the time opted for high-end tourism services and strictly complied with the requirements throughout their trips.

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