A group of journalists visited the Cross-Border Goods Direct Purchase Experience Center in Bishan district, Southwest China's Chongqing on Sept 11, the sixth day of the 2018 China Key Network Journalists event.

A view of the Cross-Border Goods Direct Purchase Experience Center in Bishan district, Chongqing. [Photo by Ding Yu/chinadaily.com.cn]

Located near the south gate of Xiuhu National Wetland Park in Bishan district, the experience center began operating on Aug 4, 2017, greatly improving the lives of locals.

The center covers a business area of 6,000 square meters with seven intercontinental and national pavilions, covering Europe, Asia, South Korea, and Italy.

A total of more than 7,000 foreign imports in ten categories can be purchased at the experience center, such as daily necessities, mom and baby products, personal care products, and food.

The center consists of a cross-border shopping platform, an offline boutique experience store, one-stop customs clearance, a bonded warehouse, and logistics distribution with an O2O "offline experience center + online shopping platform" operation model of relying on the cross-border trade and policy advantages of the Chongqing Free Trade Zone.

The platform provides cross-border e-commerce exhibition and trade services, attracting quality product suppliers and distributors from around the world to seek cooperation opprotunities.

A director of the center said the offline experience center is designed to allow consumers to directly experience imported products, while the online shopping platform is designed to rely on cross-border e-commerce through online purchases under the supervision of the General Administration of Customs of China to ensure products are up to quality standards.

Most of the imported goods enter the country through bonded channels. They cost only 50-70 percent of the market price because consumers only need to pay postal tax.

The gate of the Cross-Border Goods Direct Purchase Experience Center in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality. [Photo by Ding Yu/chinadaily.com.cn]

The center has further improved the business environment of the Xiuhu business circle and perfectly integrated tourism, shopping, and entertainment.