Here, I encountered a team of 10 Chinese mining delegates accompanied by a Pakistani businessman whose Mandarin was impressively fluent, and together they were heading off to explore the region's investment prospects.

After parting ways with Ullah, who caught a van to Islamabad, I teamed up with a solo female Chinese traveler, and we shared a minibus ride to the next destination — Hunza valley, a mountainous region known for its stunning scenery, believed to be one of the inspirations for the mythical valley of Shangri-La in James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon.

There, I met Karim Johan, who was waiting to receive a Chinese tour group. He said to me in fluent mandarin, "You know, a Chinese girl came here in March, fell in love with it, and just opened a coffee shop last week." He laughed.

On my last evening in Pakistan, I sat in the hotel's restaurant chatting with the manager whose English was broken, but warm.