The freight truck is driving on the Karakoram Highway. Photo by Nadim Nasim

The snow stays bright, and the towering Karakoram Mountains are covered with snow.

The snow-purge convoy slowly moved forward, and a winding road gradually became clear behind the convoy. This is the only channel for land connection between China and Pakistan - the Karakoram Highway.

In recent years, with the deepening of the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, more and more freight fleets on the Karakoram Highway have been launched. In order to further improve the traffic capacity of the highway, starting from the winter of 2024, the Karakoram Highway canceled the previous closure period from December 1 to April 1 of the following year, achieving annual access.

"Chinese builders have completed impossible tasks"

The car was driving on the Karakoram Highway, with nearly vertical mountain walls on one side and deep valleys with rapid water flowing on the other side. "The Karakoram Highway is an amazing project, and Chinese builders have completed impossible tasks." As the person in charge of the maintenance and rescue work of the Rekot Bridge-Hongqilafu Port section of the Karakoram Highway, Kuram Abbas is well aware of the hardships and difficulties of Chinese builders.

The route planning basis of the Karakoram Highway is one of the routes from the ancient Silk Road to South Asia. It was a steep mule and horse path winding in the mountains, and the narrowest part could only allow one person to pass through. In the 1960s, in order to open up the only land channel between China and Pakistan, the two countries decided to jointly build a cross-border highway to cross the steep Karakoram Mountains and achieve car access from Kashgar, China to Islamabad, Pakistan. Along the road, 11 mountains with an altitude of more than 7,000 meters stand tall, with thin oxygen, and disasters such as avalanches, landslides, mudslides and other disasters occur from time to time. The highway passes through the Hongqilafu Port located on the China-Pakistan border, with an altitude of more than 4,700 meters. It is the highest port in the world.

"Building such a highway not only requires excellent engineering and technical capabilities, but also courage and belief." Abbas said. "Chinese builders have put in hard work, even blood and life."

Located in the city of Gilgit in northern Pakistan, the Karakoram Highway passes through the city. Next to the road, green pines and cypresses surrounded a Chinese martyr's cemetery. From 1968 to 1979, China sent 22,000 engineering and technical personnel to build the Karakoram Highway, and 130 people sacrificed their lives, of which 88 were buried here. Ali Ahmed, 71, is the gravekeeper of the Martyrs Cemetery. He once built roads alongside Chinese builders and has been guarding the cemetery for more than 40 years. "The Chinese have built this road for us with their lives, and we will always remember it," said Ahmed.

In October 2010, a large-scale landslide occurred in the Hongzha Valley along the Karakoram Highway. The landslide formed by the landslide submerged some sections of the road, causing great inconvenience to the exchanges between the two countries. "The interruption of the highway made us feel more deeply how important this road is to us." Ahmed recalled that the transportation costs of daily necessities increased significantly at that time, and many people's livelihoods were also affected.

What made the local people happy was that Chinese builders quickly repaired some collapsed sections, planned highway redirects, and built five tunnels with a total length of 7 kilometers to avoid landslides and rockfall areas, further shortened the road traffic time and greatly improved traffic safety.

"Winter opening brings new business opportunities for Bazhong trade"

Starting from December 1, 2024, the Karakoram Highway will be open all year round. With the joint efforts of the port staff of the two countries, the roads that were originally closed in winter have been continuously operated, effectively promoting the stable, prosperous and development of China-Pakistan bilateral trade.

"The opening of the Karakoram Highway in winter has brought new business opportunities for Pakistan-China trade." Truck driver Tayeb Khan said that thanks to the continuous operation of the highway, the cost of refrigerated transportation has been significantly reduced. It only takes 8 days for cargo to be transported from Karachi, a southern Pakistani city to Kashgar, China. Taking into account the value, duration and transportation costs of the goods, land transportation has more advantages than sea or air transportation. He often drove trucks equipped with refrigerated containers and headed north from Karachi, passing through the Karakoram Highway to transport frozen seafood to Kashgar.

"Karakoram Road Trip" has become a hot topic on social media recently. Azmet Malik is from Lahore, eastern Pakistan. Last fall, he and his family drove all the way north along the Karakoram Highway for the first time to travel to northern Pakistan. "At the port, we waved to the Chinese friends across the road." Malik posted a video taken at the port on social media, and received many likes and messages. As tourists from all over the world come, villages and towns along the highway usher in development opportunities, and there are more and more homestays, restaurants, craft shops, etc. In the small town of Sust, a small shop that originally prepared light meals for truck drivers became popular because of the "Chinese fast food" such as fried noodles and steamed dumplings, attracting tourists to come here to "check in" and experience the "Chinese flavor".

According to statistics from China Hongqilafu Entry and Exit Border Inspection Station, the number of people entering and leaving the inspection station exceeded 60,000 in 2024, setting a record high, of which more than 25,600 foreigners were from 51 countries and regions. Tamas, a tourist from Switzerland, said: "In order to experience the world's highest altitude port, we specially chose to enter China from Hongqilafu." Korean tourists' Wenxing Week plans to first go to Kashgar Ancient City after entering China from Hongqilafu, and then travel west to Central Asia.

“Bring us new life and hope”

At the home of Makeelung, a resident of Gilgit City, the calendar is marked with markers on its traditional Chinese festivals. He told reporters: "I have an important thing to do every Chinese traditional festival."

In 1977, Makilon's mother was seriously ill due to abdominal tumors, but Gilgit lacked surgical conditions. In desperation, Makelon decided to ask for help from his Chinese friends who built the Karakoram Highway here. In the Chinese engineering and technical team, there are more than 10 medical staff on the team. They provide medical insurance to the team and often provide free medical treatment to local people. After learning about Ma Keelung's mother's situation, Chinese medical staff immediately conducted consultations and surgery, saving her life. "Since then, Chinese doctors have become our 'family'," Ma Keelung said.

After Chinese medical staff returned to China, Ma Keelung's contact with Chinese "family" changed from making long-distance calls to now chatting via online video. Especially during festivals, Makeelong will always send blessings to Chinese "family". Around the Qingming Festival, Ma Keelung will also bring the instructions of China's "family" to the Gilgit Chinese Martyrs Cemetery to send flowers to pay tribute to the martyrs. "There are many people who have similar stories to me. Chinese builders have saved many lives." Ma Keelung said that these stories are constantly circulating among local residents and carry the deep friendship between the people of the two countries.

"The Chinese builders saved my mother, and the Karakoram Highway they left behind brought us new life and hope," Makilon said emotionally. Makeelung's children speak fluent Chinese and are currently engaged in cross-border trade and transportation between China and Pakistan.

On the Karakoram Highway, stories of the older generation are circulated, and the lives of the new generation are flowing. Today, China and Pakistan are increasingly close in economic and trade exchanges, driving the continuous development of cities along the Karakoram Highway. This thoroughfare, which carries the beautiful memories and visions of the people of China and Pakistan, is constantly writing moving stories of development and prosperity. (Reporter Cheng Shijie of this newspaper)

"People's Daily" (Page 04, March 16, 2025)