Doi Mae Salong -Thailand

The little brave old man who watches over his General. He did not leave him for the last 58 years and he will not until he dies.

View Photos (1) Image © 2004 Marion Vogt

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Marion Vogt of Chiangmai Mail

Next time you are in Chiang Rai and surrounding to show friends around, do not just drive the normal tourist route where everybody goes, but instead try to find some things what will stay in their mind as well as in yours.

Mae Salong is such a spot.

Mae Salong, a small town, about 80 km northeast of Chiang Rai City can be reached via Mae Chan. What makes this little village so different from others is its Chinese populace. The inhabitants are mostly the families of Chinese Kuomintang soldiers, who fled from the communists in 1949, first to settle in Burma. They were driven out of Burma in 1961 and then settled on Doi Mae Salong (Mae Salong Mountain), just 7km from the border to now Myanmar.

The cuisine as well as the architecture are Southern Chinese and despite many tourists have already found Doi Mae Salong, it has kept its own distinct appearance.

And what impressed our group the most was its cleanliness. The whole little village, the streets, houses, gardens, wherever you look is spotless clean. When you reached the peak of Doi Mae Salong you will see many traders of tea, and coffee which grows in this area and a monument on the very peak.

What many people do not know is, that this monument with a grave is guarded by a single man. The lonely old soldier of the Nationalist Chinese Kuomintang Army, General Duan. KMY General Duan is dead for a long time, but when he first arrived in Thailand some 58 years ago, he found a little Taiwanese boy, by that time 15 years old, who had lost both his parents in the war. He took this little boy under his wings, treated him like a son and now at the age of 73 this orphan of decades ago watches over the tomb of Gen. Duan. He lives behind a demarcation of plastic, sleeps in a deck chair and just does not leave HIS General who once saved his life. When we asked him to take his picture, which was a bigger task, talking with hand and feet, because he speaks not well enough Thai, no English and our Chinese is a little rusty, he turned around, rushed back to his quarters and proud as one can be, returned with a steel helmet, which was then exchanged for his Baseball Cap on his head. He seemed to be growing while we took turns in getting on a photo with him and when we walked down the stairs from this memorial site, he called out in Chinese to a couple of vendors who came rushing to us to feed us with fresh brewed tea and sweets. Free of Charge on top of it. Like as if they were happy how nice we had treated the old man.

All in all: highly recommended, not only for the sight from the top of Doi Mae Salong, but also for this little Chinese enclave where Chinese traditions are still practiced and alive.

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Published on 1/14/04