The crossing straddles the Erkeshtam Pass, a deep gorge where the southern flank of the Tian Shan meets the Pamir Mountains.

The Erkeshtam Border Crossing controls the main trade routes between the Tarim Basin to the east, and the Alay and Ferghana Valleys to the west and north.

At Sary-Tash, the A371 (now EM-05) meets the M41 highway, which leads north through the Taldyk Pass (elevation 3,615 metres (11,860 ft) to Osh and the Ferghana Valley.

From the border till Kansu the road is labeled G581 and connects in Ulugqat to the G30, with 4,243 km Chinas longest expressway up to the Pacific Ocean.

[3] Erkeshtam, being located at the natural dividing line between major geographic and cultural regions, has been an important border control point for millennia.

[4][5][6] According to the Book of Han, Juandu contained "380 households, 1,100 individuals and 500 persons able to bear arms" and the inhabitants were originally of the Sai race, who wore the clothing of the Wusun and followed "the water and pastures" and kept close to the "Ts'ung-ling" (Pamir Mountains).

[11] During Soviet times, the border post was named in honor of Andrei Bescennov, a frontier guard, who was killed in a clash with the Basmachi rebels in 1931.

[2] In December 2011, the customs office on the Chinese side of the border was relocated to a larger facility about 100 km to the east, outside the town of Ulugqat, which is about 1,000 m lower in elevation.