China may not share a long border with Laos but the untapped resources of this beautiful, rural country present a temptation hard to resist. China has become Laos’ second largest investor and trading partner with mega dam and transport projects as well as numerous cross border casinos which are forbidden fruit in China. But how welcome is this jump into Chinese style modernity for the gentle Laotians? Despite the arrival of new wealth and jobs, many are looking askance at changes to their traditional way of life not seen since French colonial times.

The aircraft has hardly taxied to a stop on the modest runway of Huay Xai, a strip of asphalt in the middle of a rice paddy in North-Western Laos, when the Chinese passengers emerge. Having filled almost every seat on the plane, they are now being welcomed with open arms by a line of young women in red qipao, the traditional Chinese dress, and another line of hard-faced men in paramilitary uniforms, likewise Chinese. The tourists hurriedly pack into a Golden Triangle Tours bus, led by three Hummers in colors inspired by American police cars. In this region where the borders of Laos and Thailand meet, where Burma is not far away, the Chinese mafia is opening the way for a new tourist destination: a casino on the banks of the Mekong. It is here that a Hong Kong-registered company has taken out a 99-year concession on Laotian soil, 200 miles from China by road.

Business at the King’s Roman Casino should be brisk: its biggest competitor in Laos, the Royal Jinlun Hotel in Boten, a few hundred meters from the Chinese border post, recently closed its doors. Beijing was not happy about activities taking place in this other Chinese “concession”. Gambling is banned in mainland China, so mafia gangs are now specializing in opening casinos abroad in neighboring countries. Royal Jinlun, a massive complex that was supposed to become a Las Vegas of gambling and sex in the middle of the jungle, opened its doors in 2003. Boten had little of Laos. Its merchants accepted only Chinese yuan. The prostitutes, like their customers, came from China. The cuisine –served with chopsticks– was that of Chongqing, Sichuan or Fujian.

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by Harold Thibault
photography by Tim Franco