This area has opened to foreign visitors only recently. The local police are on the lookout for smugglers, and they question you when they find you on the road.

This is a peaceful place, and people are very excited to talk to an outsider. One local school girl is delighted when you give her a t-shirt with a Nike emblem. For her and many native Chinese, western clothes are hot items.

From here, you head east to Hekou on the Chinese border with Vietnam.