At flood-destroyed China-Nepal border, no trace remains of busy port

At the Gyirong border crossing between China and Nepal, a Chinese flag marks the spot where the gate once stood. The five-storey customs building has disappeared, destroyed by a tsunami-like mudslide that swept through the narrow river gorge.

About 20 Chinese rescue workers used excavators, shovels and ground-penetrating radar on Sept. 6 to search for hundreds of people missing since the disaster. Officials divided the search area into seven zones. Crews had completed work in four, with three still remaining.

The mudslide followed the collapse of a glacier on the Nepal side of the border on Aug. 26. It killed more than 1,300 people on both sides and left more than 5,000 missing. In Nepal, emergency crews rescued a Chinese worker on Sept. 5 after he spent time in a tunnel connected to a hydropower station. On the Chinese side, officials said 31 people had died and 531 remained missing as of Sept. 4, including 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries.

The rescue effort has been complicated by landslide risks, poor weather and deep mud. Gyirong County sits at an average altitude above 4,000 meters, although the port itself is around 1,800 meters. China restored the only land route into Gyirong on Sept. 2, allowing heavy equipment to reach the area. State media also showed workers installing temporary electric poles to reconnect the damaged area to the grid.

Gyirong became the main crossing for trade and travelers between Nepal and Tibet after the 2015 earthquake damaged another crossing farther east. It had handled Chinese goods, including electric cars, and thousands of Hindu pilgrims traveling through Nepal toward Mount Kailash, a site revered by Hindus and Buddhists. The port had also been closed from July 2025 to January after an earlier glacial flood.