The Official Start of Our Journey

We were finally at the top of Kunjirap Pass,where we would begin our journey following in the footsteps of Marco Polo. We had been here five years ago, and this time saw no striking changes in the area's appearance, except that there were a few more houses. There were more travellers coming across now than five years ago, which meant that more border officials were needed to man the pass,but everything else seemed little changed.

Over 20 kilometres beyond the pass, we came to the border of China and Pakistan, where a large boundary marker stood. Being 3,900 metres above sea level, the place was very cold even though it was only noon. The barren mountains were treeless, covered only with yellowish grass. Since the Pakistani border army men often come into close contact with the Chinese, they could speak some Mandarin. Though we had only just met,they treated us like old friends. One of them took off his triangular cap and military belt, put them on us and then had a picture taken with us, with the boundary marker as background. Just then we heard some high-spirited shouting and saw a Pakistani army officer coming towards us with a big bouquet of wild flowers, his face all smiles. What a nice way to start our long, 12,000 kilometre journey!

Today businessmen and tourists from pakistan have to go through frontier inspection before entering China.