Muse (Shan State)
Encyclopedia
Muse is the principal town of Muse Township also spell as Mu Se Township
in northern Shan State
, Myanmar
. It is situated on the Shweli River
, and is connected by a bridge and road to Ruili
(Shweli, ʃwèlì, in Burmese
) in Yunnan Province, China
.
The old bridge dubbed the "Gun Bridge" by the locals on account of the frequent traffic of armaments from China to the military government of Burma was closed in 2005, replaced by a new bridge with a wider span and parallel to it.
via Lashio
by the National Highway 3
450 km Asian Highway route 14 (AH14), The old Burma Road
links the new road to Bhamo
in Kachin State
which links to the Ledo Road
. Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Road included part of the Burma Road and was rebuilt and upgraded for heavy traffic in 1998 on a Build-Operate-Transfer
basis (BOT) by the Asia World Company headed by the son of the former opium
war lord Lo Hsing Han
. It has cut the journey time from 2 days, even a week in the rainy season, to just 12–16 hours. Muse is also connected to central Burma via the Mandalay-Lashio railway line.
after the military came to power in Burma in 1962 but the ban was lifted following negotiations in 1988. Bilateral trade
has risen steadily since, increasing by 60% in the fiscal year ending 31 March 2008, and constitutes 24% of Burma's trade ranking China as a major trading partner second only to Thailand
.
Burma exports mainly raw materials such as agricultural produce, fish
, timber
, gems
and minerals, and imports consumer goods, electronics
, machinery and processed food. Muse's '105th mile Trade Zone' , a border zone of 150 hectares, opened in April 2006, the first and largest border trade
camp of its kind in Burma, handling as much as 70% of cross border trade with China. A trade fair
has been held annually every December since 2001 alternating between the two border towns each year with India
, Bangladesh
and Thailand
as well as China taking part.
In 2007 the local militia
, under orders of the military authorities, seized 10000 acres (40.5 km²) of land in the area, mainly tea and orange plantations as well as small farms, with little or no compensation, in a drive to cultivate physic nut
s for biodiesel
as an alternative fuel
.
On 8 May 2008, the military seized 20 truck loads of biscuits and other goods at Muse allegedly for the relief of Cyclone Nargis
victims.
A joint enterprise
between Burma and China to construct oil and gas
pipelines from the Bay of Bengal
via Mandalay
through Muse to Kunming
in Yunnan Province starts operations in 2009.
harvest had increased since Lo Hsing Han managed to rebuild his drug empire after becoming the intermediary for cease-fire agreements between the military intelligence
chief Khin Nyunt
and the Kokang
and Wa
insurgents
who had rebelled against and toppled the Communist leadership
in 1989. The World Food Program carried out emergency food assistance to former poppy farmers in 2004-2005 as pressure mounted to stop cultivation of the poppy.
Gambling, drugs and prostitution flourished in Ruili, but Muse's own efforts to share in the Las Vegas
style business atmosphere met with much less success. The Chinese authorities cracked down on heroin entering - but not the chemical ingredients for the amphetamine
-type stimulant
(ATS) called yaba
leaving - and also on Chinese men enjoying the same pleasures on the Burmese side of the border. Besides the UNODC, a number of groups and organisations such as the Asian Harm Reduction Network (AHRN) and Buddhist monks are also involved in the amelioration of the HIV/AIDS problem among drug users
.
Mu Se Township
Mu Se Township is a township of Mu Se District in the Shan State of eastern Burma. The principal town and administrative center is Muse. It is the terminus of Mandalay-Lashio-Muse road....
in northern Shan State
Shan State
Shan State is a state of Burma . Shan State borders China to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Burma in the west. Largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km², almost a quarter of the total...
, Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
. It is situated on the Shweli River
Shweli River
Shweli River is a river in Myanmar . Also known as Nam Mao in Shan and Lung Chuan Chiang in Chinese, it forms part of the boundary between Burma and China. It is one of the tributaries of the country's chief river, the Ayeyarwady, and arises in Yunnan Province of China...
, and is connected by a bridge and road to Ruili
Ruili
Ruili City is a county-level city in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan province, southwest China.It is a major border crossing between China and Myanmar, with Muse town located across the border.- Name :...
(Shweli, ʃwèlì, in Burmese
Burmese language
The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as...
) in Yunnan Province, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
.
The old bridge dubbed the "Gun Bridge" by the locals on account of the frequent traffic of armaments from China to the military government of Burma was closed in 2005, replaced by a new bridge with a wider span and parallel to it.
Transport
Muse is today connected to MandalayMandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....
via Lashio
Lashio
Lashio is the largest town in northern Shan State, Myanmar, about northeast of Mandalay. It is situated on a low mountain spur overlooking the valley of the Nam Yao river. The population grew from around 5000 in 1960 to 88,590 in 1983. It is currently estimated at around 130,000.Lashio is the...
by the National Highway 3
National Highway 3 (Burma)
National Highway 3 is one of the most important highways of central-eastern Burma. It connects Mandalay to Muse on the border with China....
450 km Asian Highway route 14 (AH14), The old Burma Road
Burma Road
The Burma Road is a road linking Burma with the southwest of China. Its terminals are Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. When it was built, Burma was a British colony.The road is long and runs through rough mountain country...
links the new road to Bhamo
Bhamo
Bhamo is a city of Kachin State in northernmost part of Myanmar, located 186 km south from the capital city of Myitkyina. It is on the Ayeyarwady River. It lies within 65 km of the border with Yunnan Province, China. The population consists of Chinese and Shan, with Kachin peoples in...
in Kachin State
Kachin State
Kachin State , is the northernmost state of Burma. It is bordered by China to the north and east; Shan State to the south; and Sagaing Division and India to the west. It lies between north latitude 23° 27' and 28° 25' longitude 96° 0' and 98° 44'. The area of Kachin State is . The capital of the...
which links to the Ledo Road
Ledo Road
The Ledo Road was built during World War II so that the Western Allies could supply the Chinese as an alternative to the Burma Road which had been cut by the Japanese in 1942. It was renamed the Stilwell Road in early 1945 at the suggestion of Chiang Kai-shek...
. Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Road included part of the Burma Road and was rebuilt and upgraded for heavy traffic in 1998 on a Build-Operate-Transfer
Build-Operate-Transfer
Build-own-operate-transfer or build-operate-transfer is a form of project financing, wherein a private entity receives a concession from the private or public sector to finance, design, construct, and operate a facility stated in the concession contract...
basis (BOT) by the Asia World Company headed by the son of the former opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
war lord Lo Hsing Han
Lo Hsing Han
Lo Hsing Han or Law Sit Han is a former Burmese drug trafficker and present-day major Burmese business tycoon, with financial ties to Singapore. He is an ethnic Kokang.-Rise and fall:...
. It has cut the journey time from 2 days, even a week in the rainy season, to just 12–16 hours. Muse is also connected to central Burma via the Mandalay-Lashio railway line.
Economy
Cross-border trade was banned by Ne WinNe Win
Ne Win was Burmese a politician and military commander. He was Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974 and also head of state from 1962 to 1981...
after the military came to power in Burma in 1962 but the ban was lifted following negotiations in 1988. Bilateral trade
Bilateral trade
Bilateral trade or clearing trade is trade exclusively between two states, particularly, barter trade based on bilateral deals between governments, and without using hard currency for payment...
has risen steadily since, increasing by 60% in the fiscal year ending 31 March 2008, and constitutes 24% of Burma's trade ranking China as a major trading partner second only to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
.
Burma exports mainly raw materials such as agricultural produce, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
, gems
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
and minerals, and imports consumer goods, electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
, machinery and processed food. Muse's '105th mile Trade Zone' , a border zone of 150 hectares, opened in April 2006, the first and largest border trade
Border trade
Border trade, in general, refers to the flow of goods and services across theinternational borders between jurisdictions. In this sense, it is a part of normal legal tradethat flows through standard export/import frameworks of nations...
camp of its kind in Burma, handling as much as 70% of cross border trade with China. A trade fair
Trade fair
A trade fair is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products, service, study activities of rivals and examine recent market trends and opportunities...
has been held annually every December since 2001 alternating between the two border towns each year with India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
as well as China taking part.
In 2007 the local militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
, under orders of the military authorities, seized 10000 acres (40.5 km²) of land in the area, mainly tea and orange plantations as well as small farms, with little or no compensation, in a drive to cultivate physic nut
Jatropha curcas
Jatropha curcas is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, that is native to the American tropics, most likely Mexico and Central America. It is cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions around the world, becoming naturalized in some areas...
s for biodiesel
Biodiesel
Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....
as an alternative fuel
Alternative fuel
Alternative fuels, known as non-conventional or advanced fuels, are any materials or substances that can be used as fuels, other than conventional fuels...
.
On 8 May 2008, the military seized 20 truck loads of biscuits and other goods at Muse allegedly for the relief of Cyclone Nargis
Cyclone Nargis
Cyclone Nargis , was a strong tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Burma. The cyclone made landfall in Burma on Friday, May 2, 2008, causing catastrophic destruction and at least 138,000 fatalities...
victims.
A joint enterprise
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...
between Burma and China to construct oil and gas
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
pipelines from the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...
via Mandalay
Mandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....
through Muse to Kunming
Kunming
' is the capital and largest city of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. It was known as Yunnan-Fou until the 1920s. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of Yunnan, and is the seat of the provincial government...
in Yunnan Province starts operations in 2009.
Narcotics
Recently China built a 4 km long fence on the border near Ruili in order to stop drug trafficking and two more are under construction.Drug addiction is a major problem in the area. The opium poppyOpium poppy
Opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, is the species of plant from which opium and poppy seeds are extracted. Opium is the source of many opiates, including morphine , thebaine, codeine, papaverine, and noscapine...
harvest had increased since Lo Hsing Han managed to rebuild his drug empire after becoming the intermediary for cease-fire agreements between the military intelligence
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
chief Khin Nyunt
Khin Nyunt
General Khin Nyunt is an officer and politician in Myanmar. Khin Nyunt is of Burmese Chinese descent. He held the office of Chief of Intelligence and was Prime Minister from 25 August 2003 until 18 October 2004. He is married to Khin Win Shwe, a medical doctor, and father to a daughter, Thin Le Le...
and the Kokang
Kokang
Kokang , formally the First Special Region, is a self-administrative region of Burma . It is located in the northern part of Shan State, with the Salween River to its west, and it shares a border with China's Yunnan Province in the east. Its total land area is around . The capital is Laukkai...
and Wa
Wa State
Wa State is an unrecognised state in Myanmar and is currently subsumed under the official Wa Special Region 2 of the Northern Shan State. The administrative capital is Pangkham . The name Wa derives from an ethnic group, who speaks a language in the Austroasiatic family of languages...
insurgents
Insurgency
An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...
who had rebelled against and toppled the Communist leadership
Communist Party of Burma
The Communist Party of Burma is the oldest existing political party in Burma. The party is unrecognised by the Burmese authorities, rendering it illegal; so it operates in a clandestine manner, often associating with insurgent armies along the border of People's Republic of China...
in 1989. The World Food Program carried out emergency food assistance to former poppy farmers in 2004-2005 as pressure mounted to stop cultivation of the poppy.
Gambling, drugs and prostitution flourished in Ruili, but Muse's own efforts to share in the Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
style business atmosphere met with much less success. The Chinese authorities cracked down on heroin entering - but not the chemical ingredients for the amphetamine
Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
-type stimulant
Stimulant
Stimulants are psychoactive drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both. Examples of these kinds of effects may include enhanced alertness, wakefulness, and locomotion, among others...
(ATS) called yaba
Yaba (drug)
Ya ba are tablets containing a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine.-Alternative names:...
leaving - and also on Chinese men enjoying the same pleasures on the Burmese side of the border. Besides the UNODC, a number of groups and organisations such as the Asian Harm Reduction Network (AHRN) and Buddhist monks are also involved in the amelioration of the HIV/AIDS problem among drug users
Recreational drug use
Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...
.
External links
- Muse, bridge over Shweli, and Ruili WikiMapiaWikimapiaWikiMapia is a privately owned, online map and satellite imaging resource that combines Google Maps with a wiki system, allowing users to add information, in the form of a note, to any location on Earth. Users may currently use this information for free...
- Kyegaung checkpoint, Myanmar-China border at Muse-Ruili Asterism
- Shan State map: 1 = Muse, I = Ruili Asterism
- Photo of the "Gun Bridge" over the Shweli Renaud Egreteau
- Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Union Highway MRTV3 video
- Fifth Destruction of Seized Narcotic Drugs, March 21, 2005 Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- 2008 Myanmar-China border trade fair (Muse) Department of Border Trade
- Htoo Trading; only company with timber export license illegal-logging.info, 17 August 2006
- Shan: Rare Tree Trade Aggravates Deforestation illegal-logging.info, 19 June 2007
- China provides more military trucks to Burma Mizzima NewsMizzima NewsMizzima News is a Burmese multimedia news organization. It was established in August 1998 by a group of Burmese journalists in exile. The International Press Institute awarded Mizzima News its Free Media Pioneer award in 2007.-Organization:...
, 14 January 2009