Mong La District

Mong La Township (Shan: ၸႄႈဝဵင်းမိူင်းလႃး, Burmese: မိုင်းလားမြို့နယ်) is the only township of Mong La District (Shan: ၸႄႈတွၼ်ႈမိူင်းလႃး, Burmese: မိုင်းလားခရိုင်) in far eastern Shan State, Myanmar. The area borders China and Laos.^[2] The principal town is Mong La.

Mong La Township Mong La District ၸႄႈဝဵင်းမိူင်းလႃး ၸႄႈတွၼ်ႈမိူင်းလႃး
Township and District
Location in Shan State
Coordinates: 21°40′0″N 100°0′0″E
Country	Myanmar
State	Shan State
Capital	Mong La
Elevation [1]	645 m (2,116 ft)
Time zone	UTC+6:30 (MST)

Sharing a border with China, the Mong La area is a center for the production and traffic of narcotics^[3] and illegal wildlife trade.^[4] It offers gambling and prostitution to Chinese tourists in an unregulated environment outside Myanmar government control.^[5]

History

See also: History of Myanmar, National Democratic Alliance Army, and Mong La

The Mong La region was Special Region Number 4 of Shan before the new constitution (2008).^[6] It hosts the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) and its leader Lin Mingxian aka Sai Leun.^[7] It was the #815 War Zone of the former Communist Party of Burma (CPB).^[8] In 2008 the United Wa State Army (UWSA) strongly opposed the move to give away the adjacent area of Mong Pawk from its control because it serves as a link with its ally, the NDAA in Mong La.^[9]

In 2022, Mong La Township was promoted to its own district, splitting off from former Kengtung District.^[10][11][12]