Another Chinese-backed infrastructure construction initiative in Burma has prompted The Irrawaddy to publish a long and detailed report. By the sounds of it, a genuine highway, and not the standard two-lane secondary road, is now planned.
Perhaps, one day the full length of road between Kunming and the Burmese coast will look something like this:
…however, in my experience, it will be a long time before all of the important roads in Burma no longer look like this:
…or, on some days, like this:
5 responses so far ↓
1 aiontay // Jul 5, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Great pictures. Where are they from?
One thing I remember about the roads in Burma is the highway north out of Lashio. As it heads towards China it goes through a number of switchbacks and back then it was missing a lot of pavement. The switchbacks had dead eels all along them. The eels were being transported in tanks up to China, but got sloshed out on the turns.
2 Nicholas Farrelly // Jul 5, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Thanks Aiontay, great story!
To answer your question:
The first shot is the road between Kunming and Ruili – these days it looks like this for much (but not all) of its length. It is an amazing section of road.
The second was taken on a major road near Bhamo.
The third picture is of an unfortunate inter-town “bus” stuck in the mud in the western Kachin State.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
3 aiontay // Jul 6, 2007 at 10:22 am
The Irrawaddy article is perversely funny; Steve Law, Lo Hsin Han’s son, and Asia World are building a road that will just happen to run through one of the main heroin/methamphetamine producing areas in the world down to a major port facility? Is the highway going to go past Traders Hotel in Rangoon?
On a more mundane level, getting a highway through the Shan Plateau has got to be one tough engineering project.
4 jonfernquest // Jul 6, 2007 at 12:39 pm
When they build roads like this, travel times drop from days to hours.
At least that was the case when, after several failed attempts and abandoned equipment by the side of the road, they finally completed the Maesai to Kengtung Road. I wonder what the Taunggyi to Kengtung road is like nowadays. That was quite a bottleneck.
5 Nicholas Farrelly // Jul 6, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Jon,
The last time I saw the Taunggyi – Kentung road, Asia World construction crews were slowly improving its many black-spots. I haven’t been in there for some time but I assume that work continues. I would be very interested to hear from New Mandala readers who can offer a more up-to-date perspective.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
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