Life Of Myanmar Towns In The Golden Triangle

KOKANG, MYANMAR - MARCH 23: (CHINA OUT) A soldier guards at a sentry post on March 23, 2006 in Kokang Special Region of Shan State, Myanmar. Gambling business thrives in Kokang and many gamblers are Chinese. Kokang, a frontier town that borders China, was used to be one of the major opium-producing areas in the Golden Triangle. Since 2003, Kokang has implemented an opium ban but farmers there live a more impoverished life as residents in the mountainous areas rely on opium cultivation as a cash crop. Local goverment is trying to develope substitution economic crops for farmers. The Golden Triangle, an area that overlaps the mountains of Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand, is the world's second largest producer of opium, next to Afghanistan. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)