[Chinese construction firms have almost completed a 335-km tarred road from Sost, a
Pakistani frontier town on its border with China, to Gilgit, the capital of the
Gilgit-Baltistan province. Expansion work is in progress on the rest of the 900-km
road, to link the port to Pakistan's north-south Indus Highway, which will facilitate
overland transport from Gwadar to China. It takes a merchant vessel over 20 days to
cover the 10,000 km distance from the mouth of the Persian Gulf to Shanghai via the
narrow Malacca straits. Gwadar will enable Chinese merchant ships to load cargo at
Gwadar and sail to Europe via the Red Sea, saving 3,900 km.--Qaswar Abbas, "China heading stealthily towards its ambitious plan to safeguard its
Persian Gulf route," India Today, March 8, 2013]