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 ...

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 Wells explai ...

's far eastern

Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos ...

. It is situated at a bend on the Hka River 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 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, opposite of the town of Menglian. 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 kno ...

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 Hopang District is a district of Shan State, Burma. It is part of the Wa Self-Administe ...

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 re ...

s, shops, a

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

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 clubhouse or dwelling ...

, 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 enterta ...

. 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 Rove ...

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 b ...

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 fo ...

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 decre ...

, while Hopang 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, ...

(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 a ...

(CPB) in 1989. On 17 April 2009, the 20th anniversary of the coup against the CPB was celebrated in Pangkham, attended by representatives from the

military government A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...

, Kokang,

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 ( pan ...

in a warehouse in Pangkham, both belonging to one of the Wa leaders

Wei Hsueh-kang Wei Hsueh-kang,, also known by #Pseudonyms, various other names, is a Chinese-born business tycoon and drug trafficker Fugitive, wanted by the United States and Thailand for illegally trafficking drugs in New York (state), New York and Golde ...

. 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 fro ...

''
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 city
Something 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