Dongxing Textile Market in south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region is often crowded with traders from Mong Cai of Vietnam, who will sell most of the cloth they buy to Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam.

The cloth from the market accounts for 90 percent of the total textile market in Vietnam, which means about 90 percent of the Vietnamese wear garments whose cloth came from China, said Yang Shuilin, deputy general manager of Dongxing textile market.

Occupying an area of 20,000 square meters, the Dongxing Textile Market, the largest market of its kind in southwest China, has 318 stands and 30 storage areas and sells more than 1,500 kinds of cloth collected from across China, including silk, flax and lacework.

In the past, the Vietnamese preferred dark-colored cloth made with low-cost chemical fibers, Yang recalled.

The establishment of the Free Trade Zone between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has greatly increased the sales volume and the variety of cloth sold to Vietnam from China.

Chen Youguo, a businessman from east China's Zhejiang province, has been engaged in textile trade for some 10 years.

"Vietnam has a higher demand for cloth now, not only in designs but also in quality," said Chen, who is contended with his monthly income of more than 5 million yuan (about 604,500 US dollars) from selling cloth.

(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2003)