Pinlaung is a town above sea level and seat of

Pinlaung Township Pinlaung Township ( my, ပင်လောင်းမြို့နယ်) is a township of Taunggyi District in the Shan State of Myanmar. It is one of three townships in the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone. Its principal town is Pinlaung. Acco ...

, in the

Pa-O Self-Administered Zone The Pa'O Self-Administered Zone ( my, ပအိုဝ်းကိုယ်ပိုင်အုပ်ချုပ်ခွင့်ရဒေသ ), as stipulated by the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar, is a self-administered zone consisting of three t ...

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 ...

of eastern-central

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 C. Wells, Joh ...

. It lies along National Road 54, north-west by road from

Loikaw Loikaw (, ) is the capital of Kayah State in Myanmar. It is located in the Karen Hills area, near the State's northern tip, just above an embayment on the Pilu River. The inhabitants are mostly Kayah (Karenni). Myanmar's largest hydropower p ...

. Running through the city center is a rail line connecting

Kalaw Kalaw ( my, ကလောမြို့; Shan: ) is a hill town in the Shan State of Myanmar. It is located in Kalaw Township in Taunggyi District. Overview The town was popular with the British during colonial rule. Kalaw is the main settin ...

, two major tourist towns in the area.

Demographics

Pinlaung is primarily home to

Pa'O Pa'O may refer to: * Pa'O language, a Karen language of Burma * Pa'O people , native_name_lang = my , image = Pa O Tribe Kalaw Shan Myanmar.jpg , caption = A Pa'O woman near Kalaw, southern Shan State , population = ...

and Shan ethnic groups.

Tourism

Tourists who visit the town of Pinlaung may visit Mway Daw Pagoda, the Nam Hoo Kyaung Tike Temple, and an authentic traditional craft market. Twenty minutes from the city center is another popular destination with tourists, Loi Maung Taung Pagoda. This stupa sits at the highest peak in the region, Loi Maung Taung. Another, lesser-known, mountain outside of the city center is Wingabar Mountain. This historic mountain is located from Pinlaung in the village of Taung Hti Bwar and features a full-length cave, called Yar Za Cave or Hti Bwar Cave.

Economics

Traditionally, farmers from the Pinlaung area grew subsistence crops such as cheroot leaves, maize and beans. When the opium trade took off in the 1900s, poppy became a major cash crop in the area. However, in recent years, there have been efforts to focus on other saleable crops such as coffee and tea. Now, Pinlaung is the premier tea-growing town in Myanmar, with the

Assam tea Assam tea is a black tea named after the region of its production, Assam, India. It is manufactured specifically from the plant ''Camellia sinensis'' var. ''assamica'' (Masters). The Assam tea plant is indigenous to Assam—initial efforts to plan ...

being the most predominant cultivar grown. Furthermore,

cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of ''Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.&n ...

cauliflower Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the species ''Brassica oleracea'' in the genus '' Brassica'', which is in the Brassicaceae (or mustard) family. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed. Typically, only the head is eaten – t ...

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

and

sesame Sesame ( or ; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a flowering plant in the genus ''Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cul ...

grow in abundance due to the favourable climate conditions. Before 2010, accessing Pinlaung was a difficult task. Merchants from

Naypyidaw Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city o ...

, southern, and western Myanmar who wanted trade with the highland farmers and ethnic tribes in Pinlaung were required to traverse the dangerous winding roads of Elephant Mountain (Sin Taung) and cross the Paung Laung River by boat. Then, Myanmar's former government contracted P.T.Waagner-Biro Indonesia together with Supreme Group of Companies to construct an expansive steel truss suspension bridge to span the river. The bridge, known as the Leinli Bridge, would become the highest of its kind in Myanmar. The bridge was opened on 5 November 2010, at a cost of 3.476 million in foreign currency and an additional 14,500 million kyats.

Climate

Pinlaung has a

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

(Cwb).

References

External links

Maplandia World Gazetteer
{{Shan State Populated places in Shan State Township capitals of Myanmar