Menghai County Travel Guide

Menghai County (勐海县) is a county under the jurisdiction of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China.

When we eventually headed to Menghai town itself, a few days after our aborted excursion to Menghun market, the buses were running again, but only on the old road, turning the normally smooth 45- minute journey into a four- hour crawl.

The most chaotic scenes occurred at the exit of Jinghong, as lorries, buses, tractors and private cars leaving the city fought with those vehicles trying to enter the city, to either get on or leave the old road. The chaos was such that there were kilometres of traffic jam in each direction and not one person of authority there to put some order into the mayhem. With so many vehicles stuck with nowhere to go, local entrepreneurs ran between the traffic, selling anything from boiled eggs to grilled meats and soft drinks. Overturned lorries and their spilled loads only further aggravated an already desperate situation.

Once we got out of town, the traffic situation improved somewhat and the scenery was spectacular, with a rather dramatic river gushing down below us and some fairly spectacular waterfalls.

The Town

Menghai town was not really the grubby, depressed place the guidebooks had described, in fact, it looked much more modern and prosperous than we had expected, but its entertainment prospects were limited, as we were soon to find out.

We arrived at a shiny new but slightly confusing bus station, where nobody really knew what time buses were supposed to leave and timetables were approximate at best. After this, we walked down the main shopping street, past numerous clothes', shoes', household appliances' and electrical goods' shops, towards the recommended Post Hotel, attached to the Post Office.

In the evening, after searching the semi-deserted streets for somewhere relatively nice to eat, but finding only basic places, we settled back into our clean, but slightly worn hotel and watched the exceedingly well-organized and meticulously planned Olympic games on TV, marvelling at the fact that Menghai and Beijing were actually part of the same country.

As we discovered the next day, you shouldn’t miss Menghai’s morning market, which takes place just off the Main road near the post office. It has a real buzz and you might catch a few Akha, Dai and Lahu dressed in their finest.

Around Menghai

Our first destination from Menghai was Gelanghe, a Dai and Akha settlement, some 30 kilometres South-East. As bus times seemed inconvenient, as well as unclear, we took the lazy and wrong option and hired a car and driver for 200 Yuan to take us there. The road, which was no more than a dirt track once we turned off from the highway, started climbing into the jungle- clad hills only a few kilometres outside Menghai, affording stunning views of the valley below.

Unfortunately, due to torrential rains, the dirt surface had turned into a quagmire. Our van slid and skidded its way up and up. Twice we had to release it from the mud with stones and wood planks, until eventually our vehicle succumbed to the inevitable and got completely bogged down; leaving us stranded to be gawped and laughed at by passing locals. The very Akha, who we were trying to go and see, stopped to comment and laugh at our predicament until a tractor, the only type of vehicle able to navigate the road, and its friendly driver pulled us out of the bog and turned our van round. Defeated, we headed back to Menghai.

To compensate for the aborted trip to Gelanghe, we visited the Bajiao Ting (the Octagonal Pavillion) at Jingzhen, 20 kms from Menghai, and the Manlei Buddhist Temple at Mengzhe, a few kilometres further along the road. Although both temples are pleasant, they are reconstructions of originals destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and can be seen fairly quickly. One highlight are the striking new paintings at the Manlei Temple, depicting scenes of Buddhist Heaven and Hell, painted by young Dai artists.

MENGHAI PRACTICALITIES:
Getting There and Away: It should be a brisk 45- minute to a one-hour zip along a new highway from Jinghong to Menghai. That is if the monsoon rains haven’t washed the highway away. Buses run continually throughout the day from both Jinghong’s bus stations. From Menghai’s bus station there are regular buses to Jinghong and Menghun, for the Sunday market. There are also inconvenient buses for Xiding and its Thursday market (see article). And if you are heading for the Burmese border, there are buses to Daluo.

For the route to Ruili, there are plenty of buses to Menglian and Langcang. This was our initial plan, but the rains made the trip a travel nightmare. We eventually decided to back-track and head to Menglun and Laos instead. Outside the wet season this westward journey would make a great trip, and we’re still planning to go there one summer.

Accomodation: We stayed at the You Zheng, or Post Office Hotel, where clean doubles cost 80 Yuan, though the bathtubs and grimy shower curtains could do with a replacement. Staff were extremely friendly and helpful.

Food:Food was a bit limited in Menghai, to say the least. Simple restaurants can be found along the main street and some noodle stalls set up at night near the main square; if it’s not raining that is...