Khunjerab Pass (China-Pakistan border) Q&A

[Lagerfeld]

Tepe, thank's a lot for your detailed report - very good!
Did you get your China visa in Pakistan?

[Tepezcu]

In Kathmandu:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4193

[Francesco]

I crossed the border a couple of weeks ago (bicycle traveler), as the previous user said, it was kinda the same for me. I advice not to cross it on monday since it's the first open day of the week and there's a lot of people. I left Sost at 10am with a small travel group (4 people in a jeep). Paid the 20usd park fee, we had a full buse ahead of us at the border, waited about 1hr and half. They checked everything in my bags, x scanned and I had to open all of them too. Afyer 2hr of travel got to Tashkurgan, they scanned the bags, open a couple of them, a dog sniffed my bike and stuff, got interviewed and they checked all my photos (smartphone, camera and gopro). The two officers at the Tashkurgan customs are very friendly, they probably are always the same duo, the skinny one was always "hey brother". Got free at 9:30 pm (beijing time). Went to the ABC bank but didn't work, other banks didn't accepeted foreign cards. I called the police to help me out and after 2hr which one of only trials with the police at the atm I managed to withdra 900 rmb in two times, then it stopped working. The next day had no problems at all and I could even withdraw with a maestro bank card, so take with you some extra rmb from pakistan (you can exchange them pretty easily in sust)

[jacobv]

Hi guys, I see the Chinese National holiday takes place Oct 1 to Oct 6, does this mean the Khunjerab pass will also be closed these dates. Does anyone have any idea when it would open again? Thanks.

[silkroadtravel99]

Hi everyone,

I recently heard some rumors that the Khunjerab Pass might stay open this winter.

Do you know if anything has been confirmed?


Edit: spelling

[Roadtophnompenh]

It all depends on the weather, not politics. I was at the border 20 october last year, and hardly made it upstairs driving a Lexus 4X4. If the global warming gets worse every year, probably no snow anymore during winter there. The chinese will do their best to keep the only landborder with PAK open for trade ! But i suppose this winter around februari there will be meters of snow on the top and no-one wants to clean that up, and even less the Pakistanis !!

[TheNonFlyingDutchman]

Hi guys, I see the Chinese National holiday takes place Oct 1 to Oct 6, does this mean the Khunjerab pass will also be closed these dates. Does anyone have any idea when it would open again? Thanks.

[TheNonFlyingDutchman]

I crossed yesterday from Tashkurgan to Sost. It was open during golden week at least on the 5th, and I suspect they opened at the same time as the Kulma/Kalasu pass, which was the 4th at 9am tajik/pak time.

Mind you: tickets are not sold anymore at the central bus station, but right at the place where the bus leaves (marked on MapsMe as “bus to sost).
Mind you 2: bring cash yuan, 225,-. They dont take alipay or wechat pay. I hd the luck that there was a kind chinese man with a lot of cash behind me, to whom I could alipay the amount.

The office opened around 9.30-10.00. Customs process was again very chinese (1000 passport checks, stupid questions, etc.). After that we waited for quite long before the buses came, and around 13.00 pak time we left in convoy. We drove straight over the pass, no stops. The first stop was at the start of the karakoram hwy park, where apparently they raised the tourist fee from 8 to 20 dollar, so you can add that up to your travel price.

Customs in Sost were an absolute relief compared to china, and with my ETA I had my stamp soon. No luggage checks, only some health form with the great option to choose: SEX: MAIL/FEMALE.

Love being in Pakistan already.
Btw Sost tips: there’s an ATM connected to a bank office building. The ATM ate 2 of my cards but since the building was open, I quickly got them back.
One german couple was not able to extract money. The other couple was, and got cash for me what I paypal’d back. SIM cards in Sost can only be bought by locals, so I’ll try my luck in Gilgit today at the SCOM office.

Edit: 1. As many foreigners, I too am only able to get money at Alfalah bank (Gilgit, Skardu, any major town or city, not in Sost.) 2. Gilgit’s SCOM store does have sims for reasonable prices. But having LTE doesn’t mean you have internet, very ‘pakistan’

[Patroclus]

Has anyone crossed recently?
I am going to attempt to cross in a few weeks and was wondering how likely it is to still be open.(I know they want to try and keep the pass open all year but not sure how likely that is)

[krajan]

Oct 19 I crossed from Tashkurgan to Sost. There was much snow on the mountains but just a little on the road.
In general my experiences are similar to TheNonFlyingDutchman, but

We drove straight over the pass, no stops. The first stop was at the start of the karakoram hwy park

We had a few stops for a few minutes, not more. I was asked to leave the bus twice and go through individual passport inspection as Polish citizen, meanwhile the rest of Pakistani and Chinese guys passed through these checkpoint without leaving the bus. Officers were rather friendly and process was easy.
Smoking was allowed only if you're next to the driver.
No luggage checks, no convoy. Some checkpoints look like abandoned, or not opened yet. Situation got better or will get worse, I don't know.

In Sost I got the cash from Alfalah ATM. Don't waste your time for trying your luck with another ATMs. In whole Pakistan you'll get no more than PNR 20 000 and the fee is PNR 650.
I got my SCOM SIM card in Ali Abad, Hunza. If planning to travel outside Gilgit-Baltistan, you'll have to activate roaming mode (it's free of cost).
You'll forget about these $20 and love Pakistan just after reaching Sost.