Afghanistan’s new road to China ends at a closed border

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At an altitude of nearly 4,900 metres, at the Wakhjir Pass, Afghanistan ends and China begins. Snow closes the pass for at least five months of the year, and people cross it only sporadically in the months when it is passable. There is no official border crossing here, and yet, on October 4, Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government celebrated the opening of a road leading to the frontier – but crucially not crossing it. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development said the road through the Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan province had been built in two phases for 365 million afghanis ($5.5m). It is a basic road – an unpaved track covered with gravel.