Lashio

Located in eastern Myanmar, a small, typical Shan market town with a Chinese twist, Lashio was once home to an influential Shan sky lord. It was also the starting point of the Burma Road along which supplies for Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang army in China were passed. Today the town has few foreign visitors and serves as a gateway to Hsipaw, offering the closest-by airport to the historic town. A disastrous fire in the 1980’s has sadly destroyed a lot of Lashio’s historical architecture. Still, there are a few pagodas and some colourful ethnic minorities living in the surrounding hills that often come to Lashio’s market in their traditional attire.