Prompted by the question from long-time contributor Roger Casas I thought I should put up some pictures of roads in the eastern Shan State. These shots are all, unfortunately, a bit dated (they were taken between 2002 and 2005) but should give readers a bit more of a feel for road infrastructure in the wedge of Shan territory between Thailand and China.
- This is the Hong Pang Construction toll gate just outside Tachilek, and only a few kilometres from the Thailand-Burma border. A few years back the toll at this gate was, as I recall, 1000 kyat (slightly more than a dollar at the time). Along the road there were another five or so toll gates collecting money for their section of the road. Note that the Hong Pang family of businesses are part of the commercial operation aligned with the United Wa State Army. They did particularly well while General Khin Nyunt was still influential in Burmese government decision-making. More information on their activities can be found here and here.
- A standard scene on the Hong Pang-built road between Tachilek and Keng Tung.
- Good times on the back of a truck.
- A Burmese government checkpoint on the road between Keng Tung and Mong La (which is right on the Chinese border).
- A Chinese tourist having a picture taken with the boundary marker on the Sino-Burmese frontier.
- A sign welcoming Chinese tourists crossing the border to the eastern Shan State.
- An Akha village in the hills of the eastern Shan State that had been cut in half by the improved road between Mong La and Keng Tung.
- The sign in the hills outside Mong La pointing towards Daluo in southern Yunnan.
- A village with no good road access high in the hills outside Keng Tung. The very basic road to this place generally limits motorised traffic to motorbikes, especially in the wet season (which had just begun when this picture was taken).
5 responses so far ↓
1 Stephen Hull // Apr 6, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I’m not sure if things have changed since I took this road in 2006, but that initial 6-lane checkpoint outside of Tachilek definitely seemed like overkill at the time. The whole way to Keng Tung only a trickle of cars, trucks and motorbikes were on the road and most of the gates on this checkpoint were blocked off as their seemed no use keeping them open given the lack of traffic. I wonder if they were planning 20 years ahead. Furthermore, people in Keng Tung complained that trade in the area was poor because, amongst other things, there were so many toll gates on the surrounding roads that it wasn’t economically feasible to conduct small-scale trade. I also couldn’t figure out at the time why the only ‘cars’, per se, on the road (aside from pick-ups, motorbikes and army trucks) were white Toyota Corolla station wagons.
2 Nicholas Farrelly // Apr 6, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Thanks Stephen,
Good info.
I think that the Toyota Corolla monopoly that you saw in action is the result of the restrictions placed on the importation of vehicles. I always had the impression that these “legal” taxis are the remnants of ambitious deals with the Japanese (and maybe the Singaporeans too). All cars in Burma cost a fortune, and even a patched up, 25 year-old Corolla can apparently go for 20 grand US these days. An old article in The Telegraph has some other interesting points on the car trade.
In other parts of Burma a similar range of old Japanese cars ply the major inter-town routes. So these fleets are not unique to the eastern Shan State. I have heard reports that the substantial four-wheel drives favoured by Burma’s rich and famous were fetching prices of over 100 grand in the past year…if they have to be bought on the black-market. And then there is the risk of confiscation…
Best wishes to all,
Nich
3 roger.casas // Apr 6, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Many thanks for the information, Nick and Stephen. That the Chinese were planning years ahead was also my impression when cruising the road from Muang Hai to Daluo in 2004. It was a nice trip to the border then, but apparently not good enough for someone´s standards, and re-construction of the road began soon after -work is still in progress, and now it takes about 5 hours to get to Daluo from Jinghong. Never-ending improvements have also made the 50 km trip from Jinghong to Muang Long (in southern Sipsong Panna) into a 3-hour ordeal; one official complained to me that the government started repairing this road without having secured funding to finish the job, and this may be the problem for other projects in the area. In any case, it seems that the completion of the link Jinghong-Mae Sai is nowhere near.
4 Stephen // Apr 7, 2008 at 12:46 pm
There’s also an article on the meeting of Burmese and Thai foreign ministers at the opening of the Mai Sai - Tachilek bridge in the January 2006 online edition of the Myanmar Times (available here).
5 roger.casas // Apr 9, 2008 at 12:59 am
many thanks for the link, Stephen; this is an Irrawaddy article on the “Laos side of the road” that I had missed:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=11225
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