Border ports and port cities, as important engines and growth poles for the economic and social development of border areas, promote and develop together. Improving the system of border towns and supporting the construction of border ports is of great significance for promoting the revitalization and prosperity of the border, stabilizing and consolidating the border, and deepening the implementation of regional coordinated development strategies. After measuring the coordinated development level of China's border land ports and cities economy, the paper found that since 2017, with the support of the border opening policies, ports have been more active in development than cities, and the port-city relationship has shown a port driven pattern; In 2020, affected by the COVID-19, port trade were blocked, and the port-city relationship became city driven pattern. Taking Xinjiang as an example, using the coupling coordination degree model to measure the coordinated development level of Xinjiang's border ports and cities economy from 2011 to 2020, the paper found that although the coupling coordination level of Xinjiang's border ports and cities economy has significantly improved, it is still in an imbalanced stage. In order to accelerate the coordinated development of border ports and cities economy, it is of great necessity of strengthening the construction of infrastructure and port open platform, promoting the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade, strengthening talent training and talent introduction, and optimizing the business environment.
