Ni's Kazakhstani employee reports sales to Ni (L). [Photo/Xinhua]

Ni owes his success to his sincerity and precise targeting. "I can speak some Russian, so I know what my customers want. My products have a good quality and a reasonable price, and thus become popular."

Based on the demand of his customers, he usually orders products from manufacturers in Guangdong, one of China's manufacturing hubs, and sells them to Kazakhstan and Russia.

Balance cars sell best in Ni's shop recently. He has just ordered 500 balance cars for his Almaty client. As business booms, Ni plans to open a new shop in a newly-built shopping center, selling high-end made-in-China toys.

At the westernmost end of the Silk Road in China, Horgos was a transit point on the ancient trade route in the Tang Dynasty (619-907). In ancient times, merchants from Central Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe braved the Gobi Desert and nomadic bandits to arrive at Chang'an, the historical name of Xi'an, then the world's largest metropolis and capital city of Tang.