The "Golden Triangle" covers roughly Shan and Kachin States in northern Myanmar, Chiang Rai Province in Thailand, Langnanta, phongsaly province and Udomsai Provinces in northern Chiang Mai, and Luang Prabang Province in the west, with a total of more than 3,000 villages and towns.
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The Golden Triangle was once famous for opium production, and 80% of the world's opium came from here. Now, the Golden Triangle has become a famous tourist attraction in northern Thailand, attracting countless tourists every year. The golden triangle archway is made of marble and is 4 meters high. It is engraved with the words "Golden Triangle" in Thai and English. There are tourist souvenir shops, jade ornaments shops and restaurants around, which sell all kinds of special goods, such as mountain ethnic costumes in Thailand, jewels and jade in Myanmar and mountain treasures in Laos.
Mekong River is another important geographical reason for the formation of the "Golden Triangle". It flows south from Qinghai in the northwest of China, passing through China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam and Cambodia. This 4009-kilometer-long river cuts off the mountains in Southeast Asia. In addition, there are countless deep valleys and swift tributaries between mountains, forming countless canyons and cliffs, forming a big traffic bend.
Due to the above-mentioned special geographical reasons, the economic and cultural ties between the Golden Triangle area and developed areas are less, and it is difficult for the central authorities of relevant countries to control the Golden Triangle period deeply or effectively for a long time.
However, the favorable climatic conditions for crop production, combined with the particularity and complexity of topography, landforms and geographical climate, have created an excellent place for many ethnic groups and various separatist forces, regional forces or ethnic armed forces to survive and multiply in this area. What is even more unimaginable is that this backward and narrow corner is constantly emitting the energy that corrodes civilized society and stubbornly proclaims its existence to the world.
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