Mongla crashes as Chinese leave

Mongla crashes as Chinese leave

Mongla, for more than ten years a booming town on eastern Shan State's border with China and 240 km north of Mae Sai is fast becoming "dry" as long-time residents from China are leaving in droves each day, according to sources in Tachilek. 

The reason for the panic was the official notification from the Yunnan authorities early this month that those who failed to return by the end of the month would be erased from the household registers, they said. 

Mongla, opposite Daluo (Talaw in Shan), from a few hundred household village in 1989, thundered into a flourishing town of 4,000 households after Lin Mingxian a.k.a Sai Lin (Zai Leun in Shan), a former communist commander, concluded truce with Rangoon. The group he heads is known officially as the National Democratic Alliance Army and unofficially as Eastern Shan State Army. His domain, Special Region #4, roughly stretches from Mongyang near the Wa border in the west to the triangle where Shan State boundary meets China and Laos in the east between China's Yunnan in the north and the Nam Lwe in the south. 

The NDAA's main income is tourism averaging Y 8 million (B 40 million) monthly until March. "During the weekends, the whole town was so jammed with visitors from China, finding a place to sleep was often a problem, although it has more than a hundred hotels and boarding houses," said one. 

Mongla's main attractions are its lush casinos, massage parlors, karaokes and brothels. "Transvestites from Thailand can also be found here," said another. "No wonder they call it a Hong Kong or sometimes a Macao in the jungle." 

However, since the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic was made public in March, and stiff measures were established to screen the visitors, the town has been suffering from the setback in the takings. "Then came this order recalling their citizens," said a source succinctly. 

Sources cited causes for the Chinese move: 

• Misappropriation of state funds by government officials who lost heavily at the town's gambling establishments 

• Increase in HIV/AIDS cases among frequent visitors from China 

• Seizures of drugs coming through the Mongla-Daluo passage despite the NDAA's tough measures towards traffickers (Any route-but-this is the operating principle, according to sources) 

• Current unrest in Burma following 30 May "Black Friday" incident 

Sources, however, were unable to answer whether the proposed opening of Mongla-Kengtung-Maesai road for increased trade and tourism between China and Thailand had anything to do with the "exodus order". Thai press had reported that the 38 million baht new bridge in construction between Tachilek and Mae Sai had been designed to provide access to southern China through Burma. 

The exact figure of Chinese residents is not known. "Official figure puts it at around 50,000, that comes from official survey," said a source. "But the actual number must be at least 80,000." 

"Mongla now is full of people from Panghsang who are waiting to buy cars and motorbikes cheap from those who are leaving," said another. A van that used to cost between Y 30 - 40,000 is now only Y 10,000, "because China does not allow unlicensed vehicles to enter its territory."