Mohan is in Mengla County, in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, in China.

Understand

Mohan (Chinese: 磨憨, Lü: ᦷᦙᧉ ᦆᦱᧃᧈ) is a small border town situated at very south end of Yunnan province in China. If you are planning to go to Laos from China or vice versa, you’ll be passing through this small town, because the immigration (border control) is here.

Get in

By Bus

It’s about a 50 min ride from Mengla by bus (van) for ¥17. There are frequent buses to/from Mengla every 20 min (52km away).

From Laos

From Luang Namtha 25,000 Kip (to the Lao side of the border). There are vans leaving from the Namtha City Bus Station every morning. But they don’t leave until they have at least five passengers, so you might have to wait for a while. It’s better to go to the bus station in the morning and ask how many passengers they have at the moment. You can also catch a bus from Luang Namtha’s new bus station, 7km away from the town. There are buses going to Jinghong every morning. They charge 30,000 Kip to the border.

If you catch a van from Luang Namtha town bus station, the van will drop you off at the Lao side border passport control. It’s an easy process to get an exit stamp from Lao immigration. And from there, it’s about 500m (6~7min walk) to get to the Chinese side border control. This side has another easy process for getting an entry stamp in your passport (if you already have a visa for China). This whole border crossing process should take about 15 min, if there’s no queue at immigration. This particular border crossing is very easy. Many times the Lao immigration officers, at different borders, ask for pocket money, but this border's officers don’t ask, even on week-ends!

By train

The China-Laos Railway passes through here on its way between Kunming and Vientiane. International trains stop here for Chinese customs and immigration checks, and you will need to alight the train with all your belongings to go through these.

See

There's not many things to see here except the Border Control.

Do

There's not many things to do here except getting a stamp on your passport at the border.

Eat

There are many Chinese restaurants in the town along the main road, and if you go to the backstreet, you'll find a lot of cheap small local diners. A bowl of rice with various ingredients is cheap and good at places near the bus station.

If you don't want to eat Chinese food, there are some shops that sell types of bread and cakes (Chinese style) and biscuits and cookies.

Sleep

Unless you arrive here too late to go anywhere, consider staying the night in more traveller-friendly Mengla (about 50min by bus), where there are a lot of hotels and restaurants, bars, coffee shops, temples, and parks. Keep in mind that the last bus to Mengla leaves at 18:00. Alternatively, if you are going to Laos, the nearest town of interest in Laos is Luang Namtha. It's just over an hour away on the other side of the border.

Go next

There is a bus station in Mohan (It looks more like a parking lot than a bus station, you can easily miss it.) It's about 1km from the border crossing.

From the Mohan Bus Station

• To Mengla 勐腊 (52km), Fare: ¥17

Departure: Every 20min. (From 7:10 to 18:00)

• To Kunming 昆明 (722km): Fare: ¥252

Departure: 11:30, 17:00

• To Jinghong 景洪 (190km), Fare: ¥66

Peparture: 8:30, 9:50, 15:50

International Buses

• To Vientiane (680km), Fare ¥260

Depart: 8:30am

• To Luang Prabang (300km), Fare ¥130

Depart: 9:00, 11:00 (every other day)