Wanding, also known as Wanting (; meaning in

Tai Nüa language Tai Nuea or Tai Nüa (Tai Nüa: ; also called Tai Le, Dehong Dai or Chinese Shan; own name: ''Tai2 Lə6'', which means "Upper Tai" or "Northern Tai" or , ; Chinese: ''Dǎinàyǔ'', 傣那语 or ''Déhóng Dǎiyǔ'', 德宏傣语; th, ภาษ� ...

: "the sun shining overhead"), is a frontier town in

Ruili City Ruili (; tdd, ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ᥛᥣᥝᥰ; shn, မိူင်းမၢဝ်း; th, เมืองมาว; my, ရွှေလီ) is a county-level city of Dehong Prefecture, in the west of Yunnan province, People's Republic of China. It ...

, Dehong Prefecture,

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 ...

. Wanding is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the official division system, but there are three administrative systems in Wanding: county-level Wanding Economic Development Zone (畹町经济开发区), township-level Wanding Town government and Wanding Farm (畹町农场) government.

History

Wanding was developed after the

Burma Road The Burma Road () was a road linking Burma (now known as Myanmar) with southwest China. Its terminals were Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. It was built while Burma was a British colony to convey supplies to China during the Second Sino-J ...

be built, as the terminal end of the road in China. It quickly grows into a border trade town between China and Burma after 1938. But the Japanese troops occupied Wanding in 1942 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, it became depressed, until recovered by the

Chinese Expeditionary Force The Chinese Expeditionary Force () was an expeditionary unit of Republic of China (1912-1949), China's National Revolutionary Army that was dispatched to British rule in Burma, Burma and British Raj, India in support of the Allies of World War II ...

on 19 January 1945. Wanding is also an important town on the

Ledo Road The Ledo Road (from Ledo, Assam, India to Kunming, Yunnan, China) was an overland connection between India and China, built during World War II to enable the Western Allies to deliver supplies to China and aid the war effort against Japan. ...

, whose opening ceremony was held in Wanding on 28 January 1945.

Soong Tse-ven Soong Tse-vung, more commonly romanized as Soong Tse-ven or Soong Tzu-wen (; 4 December 1894 – 25 April 1971), was a prominent businessman and politician in the early 20th-century Republic of China, who served as Premier. His father was Cha ...

, the premier of the Republic of China attended the ceremony. The town government was also established in early 1945. Wanding upgraded to a county-level town in 1952 and established county-level Wanding City in 1985. The border trade at Wanding reached its peak in 1992, and then it declined. The reason is complicated, which includes the route change of

China National Highway 320 China National Highway 320 (G320) runs southwest from Shanghai through the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou before ending in Ruili, Yunnan at the Sino–Burmese border. It is in length.Ruili Ruili (; tdd, ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ᥛᥣᥝᥰ; shn, မိူင်းမၢဝ်း; th, เมืองมาว; my, ရွှေလီ) is a county-level city of Dehong Prefecture, in the west of Yunnan province, People's Republic of China. It ...

, the national border trade policy adjustment, and the

1997 Asian financial crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...

, etc. Thereafter, Wanding city was abolished in 1999, and a county-level Wanding Economic Development Zone of Ruili city was founded to replace the Wanding city. Wanding city was divided into three township-level divisions: Chengguan Town (城关镇), Hunban Township (混板乡), and Mangbang Township (芒棒乡). These three combined to a new town of Wanding in 2005, and it was the only township-level division under the economic development zone. In 2011, another township-level division, Wanding Farm, was transferred under the administration of the economic development zone from the Yunnan provincial farm system. Therefore, the economic development zone contains two township-level divisions now.

Geography

Wanding, with an area of and population of 13,906, lies on the

Wanding River Wanding, also known as Wanting (; meaning in Tai Nüa language: "the sun shining overhead"), is a frontier town in Ruili City, Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China, China. Wanding is a Towns of China, town in the official ...

. It is about 850 km from

Kunming Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...

and the nearest airport is

Mangshi Mangshi (; tdd, ᥝᥥᥒᥰ ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ᥑᥩᥢᥴ; Jingpho language, Jingpho: Mangshi Myu), former name Luxi (), is a county-level city and the seat of Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, western Yunnan province, China. Mangshi has ...

Luxi City Mangshi (; tdd, ᥝᥥᥒᥰ ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ᥑᥩᥢᥴ; Jingpho: Mangshi Myu), former name Luxi (), is a county-level city and the seat of Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, western Yunnan province, China. Mangshi has an area of , wit ...

. Wanding Town has three administrative villages and six village zoning units.

Border crossing

The

China–Myanmar border The China–Myanmar border is the international border between the territory of the People's Republic of China and Myanmar (formerly ''Burma''). The border is 2,129 km (1,323 mi) in length and run from the tripoint with India in the nort ...

runs to the south of the town, the nearest Myanmar town being

Pang Hseng Pang Hseng, also known as ''Pan Saing'', ''Kyu Koke'' and ''Kyu-hkök'', is a town in Mu Se Township, Mu Se District, northern Shan State, Myanmar. On 2 November 2023 it was reported that the town had come fully under control of the Brotherhood ...

(Kyu-hkök) to the south across the Wanding River. There is a border checkpoint between Wanding and Pang Hseng,Restricted Area in Myanmar (Burma)
/ref> which functioned as the crossing from what was then known as Burma into China on the historic

and

, with supplies transported from India and Burma into China during

Gallery

File:畹町镇-国防街03.jpg, Archway to Guofang Street in Wanding. File:畹町镇-民主街02.jpg, Street in Wanding. File:畹町口岸-畹町桥02.jpg, Border crossing into Pamg Hseng, Myanmar, from Wanding, with the Chinese checkpoint in the building on the left. File:Stilwell.jpeg, Signboard at Ledo, Assam, showing the distance to Wanting (Wanting) on the Ledo Road. File:南侨机工回国抗日纪念公园-纪念馆展品15.jpg, A diorama in the Memorial Park for Overseas Chinese Drivers and Mechanics from Southeast Asia in Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression showing the construction of the Ledo Road. File:畹町桥-流浪的狗狗 - panoramio.jpg, Old Wanding Bridge which was part of the Ledo Road, next to the new concrete bridge.

References

External links