Xinjiang as a whole needs no special permit for the main routes. The Karakoram Highway is the exception, because it runs to an international border.
What the permit is#
The road south of Kashgar enters a border zone, and foreign visitors need a permit to travel in it. It is issued in Kashgar, not in advance from abroad and not at the roadside, so it has to be built into the start of the trip rather than picked up along the way. That is an argument for flying into Kashgar rather than taking the train if your days are tight — the permit costs you a morning at the Kashgar end whichever way you arrive.
In practice this is one of several reasons to travel the route with a local driver or agency. They know the current documentation requirements, which move; they can obtain the permit as a matter of routine; and public transport on this road is limited enough that a hired vehicle is the realistic option anyway.
The road closes, and not on a schedule#
Closures are a genuine feature of the route rather than a rare disruption. Weather at altitude, border operations and periodic administrative closures all shut it, sometimes at short notice.
Build slack into the itinerary and treat the Khunjerab Pass as something you may not reach. Anyone quoting you a guaranteed schedule for this road is overselling.
What the drive holds#
It is one of the great mountain roads on earth. From Kashgar it climbs into the Pamirs, past Karakul Lake at 3,600 m, sitting below Muztagh Ata at 7,546 m — a mountain large enough that the lake reads as a foreground detail.
Tashkurgan, a Tajik town at 3,100 m, is the last settlement before the pass and the usual overnight. The Khunjerab Pass beyond it is the crossing into Pakistan and one of the highest paved border crossings in the world.
Altitude is real on this route. You are above 3,000 m for most of it, gaining height quickly from Kashgar, so the usual rules apply — slow first day, water, and insurance that actually covers activity at that height.
What to expect on the way#
Expect checkpoints, and expect to show your passport repeatedly. This is normal on the route and applies to everyone; carry the document rather than a photocopy, because the checks are against the original.
That is part of a wider pattern in Xinjiang: identity checks at hotels, bazaars, petrol stations and between towns are routine, and only certain hotels are licensed to register foreign guests, with a shorter list here than elsewhere in China.
For Kashgar's old city, the Sunday livestock market and the practicalities of travelling in the region, see the Xinjiang and Kashgar guide; for the Tajik, Uyghur and Kyrgyz communities along the road, China's ethnic minorities.