M. Sing is a great old Chinese border town, a no nonsense trading environment where everyone speaks Chinese.
Wiki:
Muang Sing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[h=2]History[/h] Not much is known about the history of the town before the 18th century. A walled settlement named Wiang Fa Ya was founded by the widow of the ruler of Chiang Khaeng and in 1792 she ordered the construction of a large
stupa.[SUP]
[4][/SUP] The district of Muang Sing was the subject of a border dispute between the French and British for decades. The French set up a garrison here in 1876. Muang Sing was never formally incorporated into the kingdom of
Xishuangbanna in the late 19th century and the ruler of Muang Sing,
Chao Fa Sirinor, ruled the area as a semi-autonomous principality in the late 19th century.[SUP]
[5][/SUP] In 1885, Sirinor moved the capital of his Lue principality of
Chiang Khaeng to Muang Sing, several kilometres to the southeast, bringing with him some 1000 Lue people.[SUP]
[6][/SUP] Because of its important position geographically, the people of the town have historically been on better terms with the Burmese, Thai and Chinese people than the rest of Laos.[SUP]
[5][/SUP] However, it has continued to attract
Lue pilgrims to its reliquary festival from Xishuangbanna since at least World War II due to its past.[SUP]
[5][/SUP]
Local people
In 1904, Muang Sing was incorporated in French Laos after France and Great Britain made an agreement.[SUP]
[5][/SUP] In 1907, the Governor-General of Indochina in
Hanoi issued a decree to establish the post of a "delegue du Commissaire du Gouvernement" at Muang Sing.[SUP]
[7][/SUP] It became part of
French Indochina in 1916, but the locals continued to show discontent with the French occupation.[SUP]
[8][/SUP] In the first half of the 20th century, the French capitalized on the location of the town by using it as a weigh station and market to regulate their opium monopoly,
Opium Regie, and control production by the Hmong and Mien peoples. By World War II, some 15% of the colonial revenue of the French was obtained through opium trading.[SUP]
[9][/SUP] When changes in the international situation after the war blocked off many historical trading routes, the French government encouraged Hmong farmers to mass produce the poppies by some 800% to compete and maintain their monopoly.[SUP]
[9][/SUP] In 1953, however, Laos became independent from France and trading declined until the 1990s, when the opening of the country to tourism saw many people arriving in the area to smoke opium, leading to the reopening of drug dens.[SUP]
[1][/SUP]
JK.....
