GYIRONG, China, 06 September, 2026 (Ghufran) – About 20 Chinese rescue workers in bright orange operated excavators, shovels and ground-penetrating radar detectors on Sunday in an effort to find hundreds of people missing since a tsunami-like mudslide destroyed China’s main border crossing with Nepal. The Gyirong border crossing separating China’s Tibet and Nepal became a grim symbol of the devastation that followed the collapse of a glacier on the Nepal side of the border on August 26. Reuters and other news agencies visited the land port, which sits in a narrow river gorge, in the first trip organized for foreign media by China’s foreign ministry. There was no trace of the five-storey Chinese customs building that had stood at the border before the disaster, while the only structure still visible from before the mudslide was part of a nearby water tower installation. Workers had placed a Chinese flag at the spot where the nearly 20-meter-tall border gate once stood. Rescue workers divided the search area into seven zones, officials told Reuters, with searches completed in four and three remaining. The mudslide has killed more than 1,300 people on both sides of the border, with more than 5,000 missing. On China’s side, 31 people had been confirmed dead while 531 others were still classified as missing as of Friday. Among those unaccounted for are 261 foreigners from 23 countries, Chinese officials said. Rescue efforts have been complicated by the high altitude, landslide risks, poor weather and deep mud. The only land route into Gyirong was restored by Wednesday morning, allowing China to bring in heavy equipment for recovery and eventual rebuilding. Gyirong has emerged as the main border crossing for travelers and trade between Nepal and Tibet over the past decade, after a 2015 earthquake badly damaged an alternative crossing farther east. The port was also used by thousands of Hindu pilgrims traveling through Nepal to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a site revered by Hindus and Buddhists. Chinese officials have said 49 Indian citizens are among the missing foreign nationals in Tibet.