Khunjerab Pass
Highest Paved International Border Crossing In The World, On The Karakoram Highway Between Pakistan And China, Inside Khunjerab National Park · Sost, Gilgit-Baltistan
The Khunjerab Pass is the top of the Karakoram Highway, the border between Pakistan and China at about 4,700 metres, and the highest paved international border crossing in the world. The highway itself is the reason people come: built by Pakistani and Chinese engineers through the 1960s and 1970s, it follows the Indus, Gilgit and Hunza rivers through some of the most unstable mountains on earth, and hundreds of workers died making it. From Hunza the drive north passes the Passu Cones and the last town of Sost, then climbs through Khunjerab National Park, set up to protect the Marco Polo sheep and the snow leopard, where ibex and marmots are the animals you actually see. At the top is a stone border gate, soldiers from both sides and a bleak high plateau of snow and wind. Most visitors do not cross; they drive up from Hunza for the day, stand at the gate, and drive back down. Go slowly, because the climb from 2,500 metres to 4,700 in a few hours is the fastest way to get altitude sickness in Pakistan.
Karakoram Highway (N-35), Pakistan-China border, Khunjerab National Park, Sost, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
Seasonal and daytime only. The pass is open to traffic roughly from spring to early winter and shut by snow in the depths of winter; the dates are set each year, so confirm before planning. Visitors who are not crossing drive up during the day and return; a national park entry fee is collected at the checkpoint below the pass, with a higher rate for foreigners. Travellers crossing into China clear Pakistani immigration at Sost and need a Chinese visa in advance. From Karimabad the pass is about three to four hours each way by road.