BEIJING, May 31 (INP) - Pakistani and Chinese social media platforms were recently buzzed with a unique marriages' scandal, that however, failed to cause any harm to growing Sino-Pak ties.

This time the perpetuator of the scandals tried to hit the Pakistan-China social and cultural engagements that sped up after the speedy growth of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the CPEC, an important and most vibrant component of Belt and Road initiative, the BRI.

According to a report, published by China Economic Net, the marriages of Pakistani girls with Chinese men and Chinese girls with Pakistani boys has a long history, spanning over decades.

The geographical structure of both China and Pakistan, that links both nations through the Silk Road, also known as the Karakoram Highway is an important landmark of bringing about cultural and social interactions between people of Pakistan and China.

China’s Xinjiang province and Pakistan’s Northern areas, mainly comprising Gilgit, Baltistan, Hunza etc have been important hubs of bringing people to people contacts between two exemplary friendly nations.

In fact, according to the report, citizens of Northern areas of Pakistan were provided special travel documents that would enable them to travel to China even without visa.

In ancient times, both Chinese and Pakistanis have been interacting with each other on the sidelines of doing trade through Silk Road. However, the construction of Karakoram Highway brought a great influx of both Chinese and Pakistani workers and engineers to this Pakistan-China border vicinity.

During this period, where Pakistan-China Friendship touched new dimensions, there the cultural and social similarities brought a great room for binding family ties between the people from both sides of border and thus bringing the 2 nations even closer.

Many Chinese men, mainly from Xinjiang married to Pakistani women of Gilgit areas while a reasonable number of men from Pakistan’s Northern areas found their life partners from areas of Xinjiang province of China and they lived happily ever after.

INP/J/LK