A Hub of Overland Transportation, Transformation of Chiang Rai City after World War II
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Abstract
Chiang Rai City has undergone a significant transformation since World War II, evolving into a government center in upper northern Thailand. Since the 1990s, however, the regional cooperation and development plan, has reshaped Chiang Rai, transforming the city from a far-post government center into a pivotal network city in the borderlands of upper Mekong region. This article examines this spatial transformation, through the investments on the city’s infrastructure and overland transportation—particularly a modern road construction—which have arguably re-positioned the city of Chiang Rai as a key node of cross-border connectivity between Northern Thailand and its neighboring countries, especially Myanmar, Laos and Yunnan of China. This spatial transformation has facilitated the movements of migrant labor, travelers, and goods, while also attracting economic investments in housing, residential areas, a university, and hospitals. Particularly, this article analyzes road networks and inter-city transportation, through a road ethnography of the Green Bus, showing traveling practices between Chiang Rai, the northernmost city in Thailand, and Chiang Mai, the largest inland city in Northern Thailand. It argues that the improvements of road networks and inter-city transportation, in and through Chiang Rai, since the beginning of 21st century has intensified connectivity between the cities of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, socially and culturally, constituting Chiang Rai city into a hub of overland transportation in the borderlands of upper Mekong.
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