THE ROAD TO MUZTAGH ATA PART 5 – Karakoram Highway

karakoram1It is one of the best know roads in the world. It connects northern Pakistan with Xinjiang province in China. Despite the name it has little to do with a highway – the road is often narrow, winding and bumpy. Unfortunately a big portion of it is being reconstructed right now as a part of bigger China–Pakistan Economic Corridor project. As is often the case in China, it is done on a massive scale of over a 100 km at the same time. Existing traffic has to go through service or temporary roads.

Strategic value of this route is highlighted by checkpoints, one of which was fortified and looked closer to prison or military installation with sentry towers, armed personnel and video cameras. Our passports were scanned there and special facial recognition software and cameras checked whether we match our documents.

Once we crossed the part being rebuilt we got to the Karakul lake. Half an hour later we reached the end of our car journey – Subashi village.

A link to video showing the road this summer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0uuOkQXLoA

 

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