Barbed Wires

Tajikistan is a mountainous country tucked in the southern corner of Central Asia. It’s the smallest and the poorest among ex-Soviet Central Asian republics. About 20 percent of the national area was claimed by China. The contested region is located in the mountainous province of Gorno Badakhshan. Later in 2011 Tajikistan handed over about 1,100 sq km to China as a token of friendship with the giant neighbor. This photo was taken in 2006 along the Pamir Highway nearby the contested border; the barbed wire marked the uninhabited piece of borderland claimed by China.

GBAO, Tajikistan, 2006