Brief introduction to Menghai County
Menghai county is located in west of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, with its west and south bordering Myanmar, and with national boundary of 146.556 kilometers, crossing between east longitude of 99 ° 56-100 ° 41, north latitude of 21 ° 28-22 °. It has an area of 5511 square kilometers and a population of more than 300 thousand people.
Menghai County is located in southern district of Hengduan Mountains, and the tail part of the Nujiang River mountain range stretching south. The terrain is lofty in periphery, flat in middle part, with the mutually crossing mountains, hills and basins, the area of those making up 93.5 % of the County’s total. 159 rivers of large and small are running through, which belong to the system of Langcang River. The River of Sand located in the middle part of the County is 92 kilometers long, running through 3 basins of Mengzhe, Menghun and Menghai, and it is the main irrigating river, the down stream is rich in water, which has developed a grade-5 power plant. The Nanlanghe River is situated in northern part, and the Daluo River is in the western part, there are 15 basins of large and small in the areas where the rivers run through; wherein the largest one is the Mengzhe basin, with the area of 230 thousand mu, being the largest basin in Xishuangbanna and the main grain production place. Daluo, Mengban, Mengwan and Mengman are the rubber production areas. The forest coverage of the County is dropped to 36.5 % in the 1990s from that of 70% in the 1950s, Menghai is one of the places of origin of the Puer tea. 174 thousand mu of the County’s total area are planted with tea, producing 70 thousand Dan (equal to 3. 5 million kilograms) of dried tea. The tea produced by Menghai Tea Factory has long enjoyed great fame both at home and aboard.
Sugar cane field
Puer tea base
Business Walk Street
Menghai is also rich in camphor, sugar cane, while minerals are iron, copper, gold, tin, etc. There are 30 nationalities living in Menghai, wherein the population of the 8 lifetime resident nationalities of the Dai nationality, Hani nationality, Lahu nationality, Li nationality, Hui nationality, Han nationality and Wa nationality makes up 99% of the County’s total population. Menghai belong to the Yizhou County in Western Han Dynasty, to the Yongcang County in Eastern Han Dynasty, to Yishengjiedu in Tang Dynasty (Nan Zhao), and to Chelidi in Later Jin Dynasty (Dali). In the seventh year of Song Dynasty Chun Xi (1180), Payazhen became the owner of Mengle, and built the Jinglong Hall, Menghai County had become one part of Xishuangbanna. People of all nationalities in Menghai got on well with each other, and unite in a common struggle against the enemy, had fought off the Myanmar army’s attack for several times, and supported the expeditionary army during the period of the war of resistance against Japan, safeguarding the national sovereignty and territorial integrity. In February 1950, Menghai was liberated, and people of all nationalities became the masters of their own.In 1990, grain yield reached 125.41 million, becoming the grain production base county of the county; the total industrial output value reached 45.59 million Yuan, tea production, education, sanitation, and technology has made significant progress; the road transportation received a rapid development, till recently, there are 2 national roads with the length of 173 kilometers, 9 County level roads with the length of 258 kilometers, 73 country roads with the length of 672 kilometers, and 12 special roads with the length of 99 kilometers. Being the end of the No. 214 national road and the Kun Luo road, Daluo is a provincial port, the important channel to Myanmar, and it is also one of the hot places of border tourism. The Jingzhen octagonal pavilion listed at national level protection unit, the Manduan Buddhist temple is a provincial heritage conservation unit, besides theses two, the King of the tea tree in Bada is also the tourist attraction which the tourists will not miss.
The western line of Menghai tourism is one of the two sub centers, three travel areas and five main tourism lines in Xishuangbanna tourism area, featuring border tourism, cross-border tourism and tea culture tourism. In recent years, the comprehensive industrial system of Menghai tourism industry has been basically completed, with the strengthening of tourism infrastructure construction and international polarization and promotion, the increasingly regulation of the tourism market and the rapid development of the tourism industry, the tourism industry has played a more and more important role in the national economy of Menghai County, with the increasingly expand of the scale, tourism industry has become one of the key industries of Menghai County.
Up to 2006, 3 tourist attractions have been constructed in the County, among which, one is national 3 A level tourist attraction (Daluo Mengjinglai scenic spot), and the other two are national 2 A level tourist attraction (Jingzhen octagonal pavilion scenic spot and Daluo Single -Tree forest scenic spot), the under construction Xishuangbanna Sunshine Tea Culture Technology Park Yun Cha Yuan tourist attraction is a tea culture tourist attraction built according to the standard of national 4 A level tourist attraction, and will be opened on trial within 2007 after the completion of the first period project; there are 41 hotels (restaurants), with 2100 beds in total, among which, two are national two-star hotels (Daluo Yaxue Hotel and Daluo Orlane Hotel); 8 tourist reception restaurants which can manage the dining of 4000 people at the same time; personnel engaged in tourism reached more than 1100, and the Menghai tourism industry has basically developed into a comprehensive industrial system. From 1994 to 2006, Menghai County has received tourists 9.4899 million person-times (including outbound tourists 7.9026 million person-times), making tourism revenue of 2.48 billion Yuan.