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China-Tajik border
opened
By Monica Whitlock
BBC Central Asia correspondent
 China
and Tajikistan have officially opened their shared
border at a pass high in the Pamir Mountains.
State officials from Xinjiang
province in western China and the Prime Minister of
Tajikistan, Aqil Aqilov, cut a red ribbon at the
mountain village of Kulma, sending a fleet of
ceremonial trucks across to the Chinese side.
The border was sealed tightly for almost a century
during the Soviet time but now trade is growing and
China is fast becoming an economic power in Central
Asia.
The opening brings real possibilities to a remote and
undeveloped region.
The Kulma Pass must be one of the highest trading
routes on earth. Set among the towering peaks of the
Pamir, the border is over 4,000 metres high.
Traders expect a flood of Chinese imports to cross the
mountains from Xinjiang.
The bazaars of Tajikistan are already full of Chinese
wares like clothes, shoes and household goods.
Up to now they have been trucked mainly through
neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.
Opening the road through Kulma means a shorter route
and cheaper prices and a possibility of trading
onwards to other parts of Central Asia, where Chinese
products are now bought as standard.
In the longer term, the Tajiks hope to import the
machinery and technology they badly need to modernise
their country.
It is also a chance for the Tajiks to reach the
Karakorum highway that winds down to Pakistan and the
ports of South Asia.
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