About 50,000 Myanmar have found a new life in Ruili, a busy Chinese trading town of 140,000 people across the border from Muse in northern Shan State. Most of the Myanmar are Muslims involved in the jade business, who left their homeland to escape religious violence. They have rebuilt their lives, learned to communicate in Chinese and formed relationships with the locals. They never stray too far from the centre of the Myanmar community on Zhubao (Jewellery) Street, where they can gossip at teashops, eat mohinga for breakfast and buy betel at every corner.
This is their story.
When U Phone Kyaw moved to Ruili from Yangon in 1990, the Myanmar community numbered about a hundred. “Back then there was no Zhubao Street and it was very difficult to do business,” said U Phone Kyaw, 52. “The border control, the police, everyone is trying to give you trouble, but you have no choice but to sell jade on the street and risk getting caught,” he said in Chinese with a heavy Yunnanese accent. (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)
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