Lweje ( my, လွယ်ဂျယ်မြို့; also spelt Loije, ) is a town in Kachin State in northeastern

Burma 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 ...

, opposite , in Longchuan County,

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. It is one of five official

border trade Border trade, in general, refers to the flow of goods and services across the border between different jurisdictions. In this sense, border trade is a part of the normal trade that flows through the ordinary export/import legal and logistical fram ...

posts with China.

Transport

Border trade in the region has tripled since the upgrading of the dirt road connecting Lweje with

Momauk Momauk ( my, မိုးမောက်မြို့)( shn, ဝဵင်းမိူင်းမွၵ်) is a town in the Kachin State in the northernmost part of Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note ...

, a distance of , to a gravel road with Chinese assistance, was completed in December 2006. It has cut the journey time from

Bhamo Bhamo ( my, ဗန်းမော်မြို့ ''ban: mau mrui.'', also spelt Banmaw; shn, မၢၼ်ႈမူဝ်ႇ; tdd, ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ᥛᥨᥝᥱ; zh, 新街, Hsinkai) is a city in Kachin State in northern Myanmar, south of the ...

on the

Ayeyarwady River The Irrawaddy River ( Ayeyarwady River; , , from Indic ''revatī'', meaning "abounding in riches") is a river that flows from north to south through Myanmar (Burma). It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway. Orig ...

to the border from nearly 10 hours to about 3 hours.

Economy

The Lwezje border trade post with China opened on 23 August 1998. In 2022, total trade volume at the border post stood at . Exports to China include fruit, beans, rice and onions, while

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

, textiles and foodstuffs are imported. The volume of trade however is much smaller compared with

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

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 ( ...

where up to 75% of exports to Yunnan passes through to

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 ...

across the

Shweli River Shweli River ( my, ရွှေလီမြစ်; zh, 瑞丽江) is a river in China and Myanmar (Burma). Also known as Nam Mao ( shn, ၼမ်ႉမၢဝ်း; ) in Shan or Dai, and Ruili River or Longchuan River (龙川江) in Chinese, i ...

. After the then ruling

military regime A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

negotiated

ceasefire A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state act ...

agreements with 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) and the

New Democratic Army - Kachin New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

(NDA-K) in 1989, and with the

Kachin Independence Organization 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) in 1994, a boom in the

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

trade with China followed. Earlier logging concessions granted to Thai companies were cancelled in 1993 due to economic loss from violation of terms and over-logging with ecological devastation. Northern Kachin State became the area for most of the logging activity mainly by Chinese companies employing Chinese labour, and Lweje, along with

Laiza Laiza ( my, လိုင်ဇာ ''Laingza'') is a remote mountainous town in the Kachin State, Myanmar. It lies on the border with China, the other side is . Laiza is the capital of the Kachin Independence Organisation since 2005. History L ...

, one of the checkpoints on the border. KIO logging activities also increased dramatically when after the cease-fire deal it lost control of the

Hpakant Hpakant ( my, ဖားကန့်, ; Shan Language: ၽႃၵၢၼ်ႉ, also Hpakan and Phakant) is a town in Hpakant Township, Kachin State of the northernmost part of Myanmar (Burma). It is located on the Uyu River 350 km north of M ...

jade mines and the revenue they had generated. From 1997 to 2002, 88% of China's timber exports from Burma was shipped overland to Yunnan, 75% of this from Kachin State. There are believed to exist large deposits of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

in the Lweje area.

Crime

Human trafficking of women into China is a problem the two countries are trying to tackle and anti-trafficking offices were opened on 22 December 2008 in both Lweje and Jiang Phong.

Religion

During September–October 2007 at the time of the

Saffron Revolution The Saffron Revolution ( my, ရွှေဝါရောင်တော်လှန်ရေး) was a series of economic and political protests and demonstrations that took place during August, September, and October 2007 in Myanmar. The pro ...

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

were surrounded and locked down at Lweje by the military as in many other parts of the country. Centenary celebrations of the

American Baptist American Baptist may refer to: * American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA), formed (as the Northern Baptist Convention) in 1907 * American Baptist Association, formed 1924 * American Baptist College, Nashville, Tennessee, formed 1924 by the National B ...

Mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

were held for 3 days at Lweje at the end of December 2008.

Notes

External links

Satellite map at Maplandia.com
''

Mizzima News Mizzima News ( my, မဇ္ဈိမသတင်း, Ma.jjhi.ma.) is a Burmese multimedia news organisation. It was established in August 1998 by a group of Burmese journalists in exile in New Delhi. The International Press Institute awarded Mi ...

'', 9 October 2008 {{Burma–China border crossings Populated places in Kachin State China–Myanmar border crossings