In the Khunjerab mountain pass the wind has no regard. Try to do a judo lock and leave yourself lying on your back. They are fierce gusts that come from the Bengal Sea and lick the highest mountains in the world. At this point, the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush and the Karakorum seek a meeting place to form the Himalayas, the most formidable stony conjunction on the planet.
This hill is also a mythical place on the traditional silk route. The caravaneers who had left the Chinese deserts were resting minimally in Kashgar and intended to enter the valley of the Indus River to descend into the Arabian Sea and continue moving their merchandise to the West.
This pass located at 4,693 meters above sea level boasts, on a sign, of being the paved road and the highest international border in the world. But other similar signs are found in the Indian Umlung La, the Chinese Semo La, the Chilean Paranal or the Argentine Paso de San Francisco.
What is indisputable about the Khunjerab is its world-dividing air. The high valleys of the Pamirs are abandoned here to follow the rivers that head towards the Hindustani universe.
A modern arch that is out of place in front of the snow-capped mountains. There the vehicles stop, passing from the People's Republic of China to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (or vice versa). Also two planets: the theocracy of the Central Committee against that of the mosques.
When the so-called Karakorum highway was opened in 1980 – actually an unpaved dirt track prone to being cut off by avalanches – these highlands were connected, overwhelming travelers from other times. Today it circulates through it "comfortably" in a coach. But the altitude, the cold and some majestic landscapes equally impact the mind of those who cross them.
The last inhabited place in China is Tashkurgan (which means Stone Fortress, in Uyghur). Until recently, a town where no one would stop if the customs authorities did not force them to. When the vehicles arrive there late in the afternoon, they have to spend the night and wait for the border to resume its activity in the morning. Until a decade ago, the hotel offer was a penance. Today, due to the boost that the Chinese authorities have given to the so-called new silk route, one eats and rests better, even when the head does not stop buzzing at almost 4,700 meters of altitude. The landscapes of the recently surpassed Kara Kul Lake flood dreams broken by the lack of oxygen in the air.
In a few years an international airport will open to strengthen the Sino-Pakistani connection, and Tashkurgan will still be at the edge of a map, but surely not the Himalayan border that it still is today.
Leaving the surly Chinese customs policemen behind and meeting the relaxed Pakistani patrolmen opens up another dimension as well. The way of relating is cordial, even when one is asked “what weapons do you have in your luggage”.
When the bus starts downhill, place names appear that seem invented: Chitral, Kohistan, Baltistan, Hunza... In some unknown valley in this region, the writer Rudyard Kipling imagined the story of The Man Who Would Be King. And James Hilton, the one from Lost Horizons. The flan-colored bare mountains, the strong characters that appear at each curve of the route suggest that they were credible.
Khunjerab Pass is usually open only between May 1 and October 15. The rest of the year, the abundant snowfall prevents the passage of vehicles.
