Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

On a midsummer July afternoon in Pakistan's Multan, mango growers were bringing in the season's harvest, while thousands of miles away, across the Himalayas, the fruit's sweetness had already arrived in Beijing. At Pakistan House, the official residence in Beijing of Pakistan's ambassador to China, the sunlit courtyard was filled with the aroma of freshly picked mangoes and the lively conversations of guests from around the world. I was among them, attending this year's Pakistan-China Silk Road Mango Festival.

Beneath the shaded tents, the air was thick with the mingled notes of music and laughter as guests from Pakistan, China and beyond gathered around tables laden with mangoes. The wait was long, but the first bite of Sindhri mangoes - Pakistan's famed "Queen of Mangoes" - made it worthwhile. Nurtured by the unique monsoon climate and fertile soils of the Indus River basin, its sweetness was richer and its aroma deeper than any mango I had tasted before.

Standing beside me, a Pakistani journalist named Muhammad Zamir Assadi smiled as he shared a tradition from his home country: During mango season, Pakistani families traditionally send boxes of mangoes to relatives and friends across the country. "Today," he added, "many Pakistanis also send mangoes to their Chinese friends. The fruit perfectly tells the sweetness of the two countries' family-like bond." 

Nearly six decades have passed since the first Pakistani mangoes arrived in China, tracing a journey that mirrors the evolution of Pakistan-China cooperation. In 1968, a basket of Pakistani mangoes crossed the Himalayas to Beijing as a precious state gift presented by a visiting Pakistani delegation. Today, around 25 to 30 tonnes of Pakistani mangoes are exported to China each year.

Yet bringing a mango across borders is never an easy journey. A freshly harvested mango must race against time to preserve its flavor and quality. Every Pakistani mango successfully exported to China carries the imprint of more than a decade of cooperation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Since its launch in 2013 as the flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative, the CPEC 1.0 has laid the hard infrastructure that now supports Pakistan's agricultural exports. Reliable electricity, supported by projects such as the Matiari-Lahore HVDC Transmission Project, enables farmers to irrigate their orchards more consistently. Modern transport links have cut the journey from major mango-growing regions to the ports from around 11 hours to just four. From the local orchards to Gwadar Port and across the sea, upgraded logistics networks now allow these sweet fruits to travel across mountains and seas more efficiently before reaching Chinese consumers.

Having laid the hard foundations of development, the CPEC is now entering a new chapter, with a focus shifting from infrastructure to inclusive growth - turning connectivity into opportunity, productivity and shared prosperity. Today, CPEC has grown into a multidimensional framework that echoes Pakistan's 5Es vision of Exports, Equity, E-Pakistan, Environment, and Energy. Together, they represent a shared commitment to ensuring that hard-won infrastructure bears fruit in the hands of ordinary households in both countries.

As Pakistani Ambassador to China Khalil Hashmi said, Pakistani mangoes are naturally part of the story of Pakistan-China inclusive growth. Pakistan ranks as the world's sixth-largest producer and fourth-largest exporter of mangoes, while China is the world's largest consumer of fruit. Behind every mango value chain lies a living web of millions of farmers, packers, transporters, exporters, small businesses, and consumers from the two countries. 

The mango tree offers a fitting metaphor for Pakistan-China cooperation. Unlike annual crops, it demands years of patience and investment before bearing fruit. But once firmly rooted, it rewards those efforts with harvests for decades. CPEC has followed much the same path. Years of sustained investment have deepened mutual trust and laid a solid foundation for cooperation. 

From a basket of mangoes in 1968 to millions on Chinese tables today, the journey of Pakistani mangoes has become a testament to what patient, inclusive cooperation can achieve - rooted in shared land, watered by mutual trust, and ripened by a common vision for a shared prosperity.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. The article was originally published in the Pakistan Economic Network. liuxuandi@globaltimes.com.cn