Khunjerab Pass (; ; ) is a mountain pass in northern Pakistan that lies at an elevation of above sea level. It is located in the

Karakoram The Karakoram () is a mountain range in the Kashmir region spanning the border of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwestern extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range is withi ...

and holds a significant strategic position on the northern border of Pakistan, specifically in the

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative units of Pakistan, administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has b ...

's Hunza and Nagar Districts. Additionally, it is positioned on the southwestern border of China, within the

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

region. Near Khunjerab Pass, there is another pass known as , which stands at an elevation of and is located at approximately .

Etymology

The word "خنجراب" in the local

Wakhi language Wakhi (, , IPA: ikwɔr zik is an Indo-European language in the Eastern Iranian branch of the language family spoken today in Wakhan District, Northern Afghanistan, and neighboring areas of Tajikistan, Pakistan and China. Classification and ...

means 'waterfall house'. It is derived from two words, "خون"-"Khun" means house and "جراب"-"Jerab" means a creek coming from a spring or a waterfall.

Notability

The Khunjerab Pass holds several distinctions, including being the highest paved international border crossing globally and serving as the highest point along the

Karakoram Highway The Karakoram Highway (, ), also known as the KKH, National Highway 35 (), N-35, and the ChinaPakistan Friendship Highway, is a National Highways of Pakistan, national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab p ...

. The construction of the road across this pass was completed in 1982, and it has since supplanted the previously unpaved Mintaka and Kilik passes as the principal route across the formidable Karakoram Range. The decision to use the Khunjerab Pass for the Karakoram Highway was made in 1966. China citing the fact that Mintaka would be more susceptible to air strikes, recommended the steeper Khunjerab Pass instead. On the Pakistani-administered side, the pass is from the National Park station and checkpoint in Dih, from the customs and immigration post in

Sost Sclerostin is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''SOST'' gene. It is a secreted glycoprotein with a C-terminus, C-terminal cysteine knot-like (CTCK) domain and sequence similarity to the PARN, DAN (differential screening-selected gene a ...

, from

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina language, Shina: ; ) is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kas ...

, and from

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

. On the Chinese side, the pass is the southwest terminus of China National Highway 314 (G314) and is from Tashkurgan, from Kashgar and from Urumqi. The Chinese port of entry is located along the road from the pass in Tashkurgan County. The long, relatively flat pass is often snow-covered during the winter season and as a consequence is generally closed for heavy vehicles from November 30 to May 1 and for all vehicles from December 30 to April 1. This is not set however, late snowfall in the region attributed to climate-change means the road is accessible even during the winter months. Depending on the amount of snowfall, the road is cleared from time periods ranging from days to weeks. Since June 1, 2006, there has been a daily bus service across the boundary from

to Kashgar, Xinjiang. A road-sign on way to Khunjerab

This is one of the international borders where left-hand traffic (Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan) changes to right-hand traffic (China) and vice versa.

Highest ATM in the world

The Pakistani side features the highest ATM in the world, administered by the National Bank of Pakistan and linked to China UnionPay and the domestic 1LINK switch.

Railway

In 2007, consultants were hired to evaluate the construction of a railway through this pass to connect

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

with transport in Pakistan's

. A feasibility study started in November 2009 for a line connecting Havelian , away

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

, and Kashgar away in Xinjiang. However, no progress has been made thereafter and this project is also not part of the current CPEC plan.

Gallery

File:China Border, Pakistan.jpg, Khunjerab Pass, border crossing between China and Pakistan File:Khunjerab Pass Road.jpg, Khunjerab Pass Road File:Chinese and Pakistan border guards at Khunjerab Pass IMG 7721 Karakoram Highway.jpg, Chinese and Pakistani soldiers at Khunjerab Pass File:On the way to Pak-China Border (Khanjrab Pass) near Beautiful Tunnels at atabad lake Hunza Valley.jpg, China–Pakistan friendship monument in Attabad, about 150 km from the border

References

Citations

Sources

* Curzon, George Nathaniel. 1896. ''The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus''. Royal Geographical Society, London. Reprint: Elibron Classics Series, Adamant Media Corporation. 2005. (pbk); (hbk). * King, John 1989. ''Karakoram Highway : the high road to China''. Hawthorn, Victoria, Lonely Planet Publications. * Episode 13/30 of the

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

television series '' The Silk Road'', a series originally shown in Japan in the early 1980s.

External links

* Extreme points of Asia Mountain passes of China Mountain passes of Pakistan Mountain passes of Gilgit-Baltistan Mountain passes of Xinjiang China–Pakistan border crossings Mountain passes of the Karakoram Sites along the Silk Road Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County {{GilgitBaltistan-geo-stub