Hou Yangfang: We have a lot of misconceptions about the Wakhan Corridor

The Paper's reporter Fan Jialai

Recently, the sudden change in the situation in Afghanistan has become a hot spot of public opinion. Afghan Taliban representatives entered the Afghan capital, Kabul, on August 15 to negotiate with the central government and seek a peaceful transfer of power, according to foreign media reports. Earlier, the Afghan Taliban had largely taken control of Badakhshan, Afghanistan's northeasternmost border province, taking over much of the region, including the Wakhan region, which borders China.

As part of the ancient Silk Road, the Wakhan region became an important channel for cultural exchanges and trade between the East and the West in ancient times. The Jin Dynasty monk Faxian set out from Chang'an to travel west to seek Buddhahood, and in the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzang took the road back to the east through the Wahan region. For China and Afghanistan, the Wakhan region is an important channel for the two countries to communicate with each other.

Hou Yangfang, a professor at the Institute of Chinese Historical Geography at Fudan University, is a researcher on the Silk Road and the author of the book "Return to the Pamir", which tells his many experiences of traveling to and from the Pamir Plateau, and he has also visited the Wakhan region.

On August 16, in an interview with the surging news reporter, he said that there are many misunderstandings about the "Wakhan Corridor" in China. First, many domestic media and even local governments mistakenly refer to the Wakhan Kir Pass in the west, which stretches from the Wakhan Kir Pass on the border between China and Afghanistan in the west and the 90-kilometer-long Taktun Bash Pamir in The Princess Fort in the east, which is wrong. "Wakhan Corridor" is a foreign media term that has appeared in recent decades to refer specifically to the Wakhan administrative region of Afghanistan, which is different from the spatial scope of the "Wakhan Valley" (belonging to Tajikistan and Afghanistan), the "Wakhan Pamir" (i.e., the Wakhan Valley) and the "Wakhan State".

Hou Yangfang at the Afghan boundary monument at the Wakhankir Pass (wakhanjir).

"Media reports often refer to the Wakhan Corridor as an east-west direction, about 400 kilometers long, of which about 100 kilometers are in China," which is a completely wrong statement." Hou Yangfang said that in fact, the "Wakhan Corridor" in China, which is generally considered to be actually the Karachigu River Valley in Ta County, Xinjiang, belongs to the Taktun Bash Pamir and does not belong to the Wakhan region of Afghanistan.

Hou Yangfang said that the "Wakhan Corridor" is more like a literary expression, because the overall shape of the Wakhan area is similar to the corridor, some media have figuratively compared it to the "corridor" when reporting, in fact, from the perspective of historical geography, this title is completely inaccurate, and it is more appropriate to call it "Wakhan Valley". At the same time, many reports have mentioned that the Wakhan region was a "must-pass" of the ancient Silk Road, which is also wrong. "There were many roads along the ancient Silk Road, and it was not necessary to pass through the Wakhan region, but Xuanzang had passed through it when he returned to the east."

The upper reaches of the Puchi River Valley, which is only more than 2,000 meters above sea level, is a populated area of the Wakhan Valley and an important passageway for the Western Green Ridge of the Silk Road. When Xuanzang returned with the caravan, he traveled all the way east, through the capital of the Dharma Sita Empire (present-day Handud, Afghanistan, on the south bank of the Phanchi River) to the confluence of the Wakhan River and the Pamir River to form the Phanchi River, then along the Pamir Valley northeast to the Po mira River (present-day Grand Pamir), and through the Great Dragon Pond (present-day Lake Zakuri and a series of lakes and rivers to the east), and then southeast, past the eastern end of the Little Pamir, over the Paiik Pass to the Karachi Valley Valley valley of the Shupanto Kingdom, and east through Princess Fort. Head north to Stone City, the capital city of Tashkurgan, on the banks of the Migration River (present-day Tashkurgan River).

Hou Yangfang mentioned that the reason why Afghanistan is frequently plagued by wars is also related to its geographical environment: in the late 19th century, Britain and Russia jointly divided the territory of Afghanistan in the "great game", but the artificial division of the territory did not match the local ethnicity and environment. In addition to the Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan, there are Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Aymaks, Turkmens, Baluchis and a large number of other minorities. They live in different valleys of Afghanistan, their religions and lifestyles are very different, the Pashtuns do not have an overwhelming advantage over these peoples, and different values and religious beliefs have always left the interior in a state of great division.

Afghanistan, though small in size, occupies an important geographical location: it is located at the confluence of West Asia, South Asia, and Central Asia, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the "heart" of Asia. From here, you can go east to the East Asian civilization area, west to the Persian civilization area, south to the Indian civilization area, and north to the Central Asian civilization area. "However, because the border line is artificially demarcated, there is no natural demarcation of its national borders and it is inextricably linked with its neighbors, resulting in the situation in Afghanistan that is today's 'powder keg'."

Will the changing situation in Afghanistan and Wakhan have an impact on China's border security? In this regard, Hou Yangfang, who has been to the Sino-Arab border many times, expressed optimism. "First of all, the local geographical environment is more complex, and it is difficult for militants to infiltrate. At the same time, China's border defense in the local area is very strict, and I have full confidence in the national border defense.

Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai

Proofreader: Luan Meng