Pangkham (; zh, c=邦康, p=Bāngkāng;
Wa: ''Bāng kam''), known before 1999 as Pangsang (), is a
border town
A border town is a town or city close to the boundary between two countries, states, or regions. Usually the term implies that the nearness to the border is one of the things the place is most famous for. With close proximities to a different cou ...
in
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
's far eastern
Shan State
Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...
. It is situated at a bend on the
Hka River
Hka River or Nam Hka is a river of Shan State, Burma. It is a left hand tributary of the Salween.
Historically this river separated the Wa States and the northern Shan state of Manglon from Kengtung State.
Course
The Nam Hka forms the boundary b ...
near the border with
Yunnan Province
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, opposite of the town of
Menglian
Menglian Dai, Lahu and Va Autonomous County () is an autonomous county in the southwest of Yunnan, Yunnan Province, China, bordering Ximeng County to the north, Lancang County to the north, northeast, and east, and Burma's Shan State to the south ...
. Pangkham is the main town of
Pangsang Township
Pangsang Township is a township of the Wa Self-Administered Division of Shan State, formerly and conterminously part of Matman District. Prior to 2011, it was part of Hopang District and Lashio District. Its capital town is Pangsang (also known as ...
of
Matman District
Matman District or Metman District is a district of Shan State, Burma. It is part of the Wa Self-Administered Division. It was formerly part of Hopang District. Matman District consists of three townships: Matman, Namphan and Pangsang
Pangkham ...
of Shan State.
It has
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
s, shops, a
supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
,
karaoke bar
A is a type of karaoke establishment commonly found in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the United States and Canada. It originated in Japan, and is now popular worldwide, particularly in Asia. Karaoke boxes consist of multiple rooms contai ...
s, a
bowling alley
A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a Meetinghouse, clubhous ...
, and a 24-hour
casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
.
There is a thriving
night life
Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...
centered on the casino. Food in Pangkham is mostly imported from China. The cars, mainly
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...
s,
Land Cruisers and foreign
pick-ups, have been smuggled in from
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
.
[
]
History
Pangkham is the ''de facto'' capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
of Wa State
Wa State, my, ဝပြည်နယ် is an autonomous self-governing polity in Myanmar (Burma). It is ''de facto'' independent from the rest of the country and has its own political system, administrative divisions and army.29 December 2 ...
, officially designated the Wa Self-Administered Division
The Wa Self-Administered Division ( my, ဝ ကိုယ်ပိုင်အုပ်ချုပ်ခွင့်ရ တိုင်း ) is an autonomous self-administered division in Myanmar (Burma). Its official name was announced by decree ...
, while Hopang
Hopang is the capital of Hopang Township, Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). It is also the government designated capital of the Wa Self-Administered Division.
Geography
Hopang is located in the valley of the Nam Ting River, a tributary of the Salween. ...
is its capital assigned by Myanmar government. It is controlled by the United Wa State Army
The United Wa State Army (; my, ဝပြည် သွေးစည်းညီညွတ်ရေး တပ်မတော်, ), abbreviated as the UWSA or the UWS Army, is the military wing of the United Wa State Party (UWSP), the ''de facto' ...
(UWSA), the military wing of the United Wa State Party
The United Wa State Party (UWSP) is the ruling party of Wa State, an autonomous region in northern Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). It was founded on 3 November 1989 as a merger between the Burma National United Party (BNUP) and several smaller, no ...
(UWSP) formed after the collapse of the Communist Party of Burma
The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is a clandestine communist party in Myanmar (Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country.
Founded in 1939, the CPB initially fought ag ...
(CPB) in 1989.Kokang
Kokang ( my, ကိုးကန့်; ) is a region in Myanmar (Burma). It is located in the northern part of Shan State, with the Salween River to its west, and sharing a border with China's Yunnan Province to the east. Its total land area i ...
, Kachin Independence Organisation
The Kachin Independence Organisation ( my, ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေးအဖွဲ့ချုပ်; abbreviated KIO) is a Kachin political organisation in Myanmar (Burma), established on 5 February 1961. It has an armed win ...
(KIO), Shan State Army - North, and former members of the CPB.
The next day, on 18 April 2009, a fire destroyed the largest petrol station and over 10,000 tons of teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...
in a warehouse in Pangkham, both belonging to one of the Wa leaders Wei Hsueh-kang.
The road from Panghkam to Metman is 48 miles long.
References
External links
Satellite map''
GeoNames
GeoNames (or GeoNames.org) is a user editable geographical database available and accessible through various web services, under a Creative Commons attribution license. The project was founded in late 2005.
The GeoNames dataset differs from ...
''
Panghsang area map'
Shan Herald Agency for News'' (S.H.A.N.)
Myanmar's Wa: Likely Losers in the Opium War Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy, ''
Asia Times
''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kong-based English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business, and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English and ...
'', 24 January 2004
Photo: Panghsang - bridge to the hidden citySomething about Myanmar, 28 February 2006
Photo: UWSA on parade at Panghsang''
The Irrawaddy
''The Irrawaddy'' () is a news website by the Irrawaddy Publishing Group (IPG), founded in 1990 by Burmese exiles living in Thailand. From its inception, ''The Irrawaddy'' has taken an independent stance on Burmese politics. As a publication pr ...
'', 4 May 2009
{{Coord, 22, 10, N, 99, 11, E, display=title, region:MM_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki
Populated places in Shan State
China–Myanmar border crossings
Wa people