Thailands northernmost province is predominantly mountainous and has a bit of a wild west feel, bordered to the north by Burma and Laos and forming the centre of the notorious Golden Triangle region which is famed for its opium and heroin production.
Just south of the Golden Triangle tourist hell hole is Chiang Saen, a quiet and very historic town that sits by the Mekong River and was once an independent kingdom.
Xishuangbanna is the southernmost prefecture of Yunnan Province with the city of Jinghong and the counties of Menghai and Mengla under its jurisdiction.
Simao, once being one of the famous silk roads in the south in ancient times, is a wide area providing the land of thirty two mu per person (mu is a traditional unit of area, equaling to 1/6 acre).