Flash floods that tore through north-central Nepal in late August have destroyed the country's main overland trade corridor with China, killing more than 1,300 people and leaving over 5,000 missing as of early September. The collapse of a glacier and bedrock along the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli river system obliterated at least 55 kilometres of road and more than 100 bridges, crippling the Rasuwagadhi-Gyirong border crossing with Tibet (Nepal's most important land gateway to China, handling roughly 11 per cent of its Chinese imports). The disaster lays bare the physical fragility of Nepal's long-standing strategy of deepening ties with China as an economic counterweight to its dependence on India, with experts warning that rebuilding could take years and calling for investment in tunnels, diversified routes, and joint disaster early-warning systems.