Local Traders Set up Makeshift Shops at Nepal-China Korala Border

More than 80 makeshift tent shops have been set up near Border Pillar No. 24 at Nepal’s Korala border crossing with China, where local residents are selling Chinese goods to tourists and visitors.

Traders from communities living near the border have erected tarpaulin stalls in the no-man’s-land area to sell a range of Chinese products, turning the remote mountain crossing into a temporary open-air marketplace.

The traders mainly target tourists and other visitors crossing through the Korala border, offering Chinese-made consumer goods from their temporary stalls.

The activity comes as another major Nepal-China trade gateway, the Tatopani customs point, remains closed for 18 days because of landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rainfall.

Landslides at Liping and road damage in the Eko and Daklang areas have disrupted traffic along the 26-kilometre Barhabise–Tatopani road, leaving containers carrying millions of rupees worth of Chinese goods stranded.

Tatopani is a key entry point for Chinese imports, including ready-made garments, hydropower equipment, agricultural machinery, electric vehicles, computer parts and industrial raw materials.