Pakistan can be China's bridge to the Gulf
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It was midnight when the plane was flying over the Pamir Mountains. Suddenly, the plane shuddered. I saw the snow-capped Karakorum Range through the window.
A huge glacier canyon rose steeply into the sky, with the icy cliffs standing like a wall. K2, the second highest mountain on Earth, was before my eyes. My heart was beating fast with excitement. I wanted to extend my hand out of the window and touch the snow atop the mountain.
K2 is located on the border between China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the Gilgit-Baltistan Province of Pakistan.
For thousands of years, Buddhist travelers trekked through the snowy mountains on their way to schools in Taxila while the traders journeyed to Arabian Sea ports to ship their goods to Western Asia and Africa.
In order to make the passage through the mountains easier. China constructed the 1,224-kilometer Karakorum Highway in 1978.
Today in Pakistan, Chinese brands are everywhere. In his visit this week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is going to open a branch of ICBC, the world's biggest bank by capitalization, in Karachi.
By the end of this year, the trade between China and Pakistan will be worth $7 billion, with an annual growth rate of 29 percent. The growth rate of trade between the two countries is expected to grow by over 30 percent over the next five years and the trade volume could increase to $18 billion.
But the level of economic cooperation does not reflect the close and lasting political and military ties between the two countries.
The trade between China and India has grown much faster than the trade between China and Pakistan. China is India's biggest trade partner. India's trade volume with China grew 16 times between the year 2000 and 2008, with an annual growth rate of 43 percent.
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