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8th Wonder of the World: The Karakoram Highway in the highest paved international road of the world
8th Wonder of the World?
Yes you heard right.
The Karakoram Highway, also known as the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway, is a road that connects Hasan Abdal, a town near Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, with Kashgar, a major city in Xinjiang province, China.
The road is 1,300km long and was built between 1959 and 1979 by the Pakistani and Chinese governments. It is the highest paved international road in the world and crosses the Himalayas, one of the few routes that do so. It was once part of the ancient Silk Road, a network of trade routes that linked Asia and Europe.
The road was very difficult to build because of the glaciers, landslides, and avalanches in the area. It required the work of about 24,000 workers and faced many challenges. The road has improved the lives of the people who live in the mountains, such as the Uyghur, Tajik, and Kyrgyz ethnic groups.