| Hekou County | |
| Settlement Type: | Autonomous county |
| Official Name: | Hekou Yao Autonomous County |
| Pushpin Map: | China Yunnan |
| Pushpin Label: | Hekou |
| Pushpin Label Position: | top |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of the seat in Yunnan |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | China |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Yunnan |
| Subdivision Type2: | Autonomous prefecture |
| Subdivision Name2: | Honghe |
| Seat Type: | County seat |
| Seat: | Hekou |
| Area Total Km2: | 1313 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 census |
| Population Footnotes: | [1] |
| Population Total: | 101971 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Timezone: | CST |
| Utc Offset: | +8 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 661300 |
| Area Code: | 0873 |
The Hekou Yao Autonomous County is an autonomous county in the southern part of the Yunnan province of China. It is part of the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture and borders the northern Vietnamese city of Lào Cai.
At present, Hekou Yao Autonomous County has 2 towns, 3 townships and 1 ethnic township.[2]
The Hekou County Gazetteer (1994) lists the following ethnic groups.
First established in 1992, Hekou Border Economic Cooperation Zone is a border zone approved by State Council in China to promote trade between China and Vietnam. It has a planned area of 4.02 square kilometers. The zone implemented several policies to serve its clients in China from various industries and sectors including investment, trade, finance, taxation, immigration, etc.[3]
There are bus route to all destinations within Yunnan, including an overnight sleeper service from Kunming. More destinations can be reached by transfer in Mengzi.
There is a highway linking Xinjie, a town in Hekou County, with Lào Cai Province in northern Vietnam. It opened in February 2008 and marked the completion of the first highway linking Yunnan with a neighboring country from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The 56.3 kilometer, 3.58 billion yuan Xinhe highway is one of the numerous infrastructure projects that will increase connectivity between Yunnan and ASEAN and facilitate the transport of people and goods between the two regions, which are expecting to see a major increase in tourism and trade in the coming years.
The narrow-gauge Yunnan–Vietnam Railway, connecting Kunming with the port of Haiphong, opened by the French in 1910, crosses the China-Vietnam border in Hekou.
In December 2014, the last section (Mengzi–Hekou) of the new standard-gauge Kunming-Hekou Railway was completed. It ends at the new Hekou North Railway Station, which is also connected by narrow-gauge tracks to the old railway, in order to facilitate cargo movement between China and Vietnam.