On the southern slopes of the Himalayas, the town of Zham enjoys a subtropical climate, with spring-like temperatures throughout the year. Located alongside the winding China-Nepal Highway, Zham spans a terrain of 70 square kilometers, averaging about 2,200 meters above sea level. About 300 households are within town; some more conspicuous than others, with their redbrick walls, and villa-like layout. Many of those homeowners operate stores on their ground floors. Some sell perfume, cosmetics and cotton knitwear from India and Nepal. Others market general merchandise from China's inland cities, such as clothing, shoes and children's toys.

Before the trading post opened in the 1990s, based on agriculture and livestock farming, the economy of Zham ebbed along at a slow pace. But much has changed in a short period of time.

In recent years Zham has increasingly served as trade facilitation point between China and Nepal, and the town has realized increasing prosperity. Along with this more rapid economic development, the standard of living for residents has appreciably improved. Many new private homes have been built, and more than 30 families have purchased vehicles.

Building a house in Zham can be relatively more problematic. Annual rainfall is heavy, and upon the mountainous terrain the earth tends to shift and slide. The expense of constructing the foundation for a new home can run about half the cost of the entire structure. And locals tend to favor the relatively pricier red bricks imported from Nepal, rather than domestically produced masonry.

Motivated by increasing opportunities for turning a profit, many of the Sherpa (also Shyarpa) people, who make up the majority of the local residents, have left their mountainside residences to establish businesses in the Zham Trading Post zone. Pu Chi, a 25-year-old Sherpa woman, several years back proposed opening a new business, but her father wouldn't hear of it. But in 2004, regardless of family opposition, she secured a bank loan and opened a small department store in the town. This year she earned more than 10,000 yuan. Pu Chi says she plans to expand the store, and her husband, now employed in Lhasa, will soon move to Zham to help her run the business.

Frontier trading has become the principal economic driver in Zham, attracting businesspeople from at home and abroad. Today, Zham has more than 300 industrial and commercial facilities, including more than 40 shops and restaurants established by Nepalese entrepreneurs.

In the trading post zone, a dark-skinned 47-year-old Nepalese man operates his vegetable market, hawking his goods, calling out in a rough simulation of the Tibetan language. Content among customers and competitors alike, here for three years he and his younger brother have sold vegetables and fruits produced in Nepal, such as ginger, mangos, onions, fresh kidney beans, oranges and tangerines. Every two months the younger brother returns to Katmandu to purchase their stock of vegetables and fruits. Because the brothers deal in such a large volume, nearly 50 tons a year, they are able to sell vegetables and fruits at a lower price than most of their competitors. The elder brother's wife and children remain on the farm, a four-hour drive across the border in Nepal.

According to a standing agreement between China and Nepal, citizens residing within the boundaries of a 30-kilometer area at each side may cross the border freely. Seven years ago, after bilateral coordination, the two nations established the free trade market in the immediate proximity of the China-Nepal Friendship Bridge in Zham.

Primary staples imported from Nepal through the Zham Trading Post include rice, wheat flour, hot peppers and perfume. Those commodities exported to Nepal include sheep's wool, tea, salt and Tibetan medicine. In 2005, the post's cargo handling capacity exceeded 65,210 tons, an increase of 6 percent over 2004.

And so this place alongside the Himalayas, called Zham, thrives on-a "Special economic zone¡± in a special part of the world.

China pictorial
Rong Yi