Abstract: Honoured as the “Eighth Wonder of the World”, the China-Pakistan Karakorum Highway (KKH) is a pathway along the ancient Silk Road, and it is one of the roads with the highest altitude in the world. Based on the ecological, aesthetic, cultural and safe views, in this study the indicator system of assessing the landscapes along the highway was developed, weights of the indicators were derived from AHP, scores of the indicators were obtained from the available data and also the experts, and the quality of landscapes on small scale (every 15 km) along the KKH was acquired from the comprehensive evaluation model. There were two advantages for the method of landscape assessment in this study: firstly, the safe factors were added into the indicator system because the geological disasters occurred frequently along the mountainous highway sections; secondly, the 360°-panoramic pictures were taken to simulate the landscapes along the highway as true as possible. The results indicated that the quality of landscapes along the KKH was holistically good, especially along the highway section in the Khunjerab National Park, and the aesthetic, ecological and cultural values were all high along the highway section from Passu to Hunza. Therefore, the roadside landscapes should be strictly preserved. The landscape quality along some highway sections is low because of the frequent occurrence of geological disasters, so we should preserve the landscapes under the conditions of controlling the disasters along the KKH.

Key words: landscape aesthetics, landscape perception, landscape assessment, indicator system, ecological value, China, Pakistan