DUSHANBE, May 12, Asia-Plus – A group of Tajik entrepreneurs have not been allowed proceeding via the Qarasou Crossing on the Tajik-Chinese border in GBAO’s Murgab district.

Speaking in an interview with Pamir Media, local entrepreneurs said that more 20 Tajik businessmen had not been allowed proceeding via the crossing as they had tourist visas.  

They supposed that the entrepreneurs had not been allowed entering China probably because of tightening security measures in China in connection with upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing.  

In the meantime, the MFA office in Khorog said that they do not have any exact information about reasons for refusing Tajik entrepreneurs to enter China.   

This year, the Qarasou Crossing opened on May 5 and it will work every day, except weekends and holidays, from May through November.  

The Tajik-China trade route, opened in 2004, runs between from Khorog, the capital of Gorno Badakhshan in southeastern Tajikistan, over a high-altitude plateau and then down into China, where it ends in the city of Kashgar, 700 kilometers away.  But because conditions are so tough at the Qarasou border crossing - located on a mountain pass 4,400 meters high - the gateway only stays open 15 days out of every month, while from November through April it is closed altogether.