Chiang Saen

Introducing Chiang Saen

A sleepy crossroads town on the banks of the Mekong River, Chiang Saen was once the site of an important northern Thai kingdom. Scattered throughout the town today are the ruins of the 14th-century Chiang Saen kingdom – surviving architecture includes several chedi, Buddha images, wíhǎan pillars and earthen city ramparts. A few of the old monuments still standing predate Chiang Saen by a couple of hundred years; legend says this pre-Chiang Saen kingdom was called Yonok. Formerly loosely affiliated with various northern Thai kingdoms, as well as 18th-century Myanmar, Chiang Saen didn’t really become a Siamese possession until the 1880s.

Yunnanese trade routes extended from Simao, Yunnan, through Laos to Chiang Saen and then on to Mawlamyine in Burma, via Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Mae Sariang. A less-used route proceeded through Utaradit, Phayao and Phrae.

Nowadays huge river barges from China moor at Chiang Saen, carrying fruit, engine parts and all manner of other imports, keeping the old China–Siam trade route open. Despite this trade, and despite commercialisation of the nearby Golden Triangle, the town hasn’t changed too much over the last decade.

Chiang Saen is an official border crossing for Thai and Lao citizens travelling by ferry to and from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic town of Ton Pheung on the opposite side of the river.

Last updated: Mar 2, 2009