Burma Road

Burma Road, in China and Myanmar, extending from the Myanmarese railhead of Lashio to Kunming, Yunnan prov., China. About 700 mi (1,130 km) long and constructed through rough mountain country, it was a remarkable engineering achievement. Undertaken by the Chinese after the start of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and completed in 1938, it was used to transport war supplies landed at Rangoon and shipped by railroad to Lashio. This traffic increased in importance to China after the Japanese took effective control of the Chinese coast and of Indochina. The Ledo Road (later called the Stilwell Road) from Ledo, India, into Myanmar was begun in Dec., 1942. In 1944 the Ledo Road reached Myitkyina and was joined to the Burma Road. Both roads have lost their former importance and are in a state of disrepair.

Bibliography

See study by L. Anders (1965).

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Burma Road

Highway, South Asia. It runs 717 mi (1,154 km) from Lashio (in eastern Burma, now Myanmar) northeast to Kunming (in Yunnan, China). An extension runs east through China from Kunming, then north to Chongqing. Completed in 1939, it functioned as a supply route to the interior of China, carrying war goods. It was seized by the Japanese in 1942 and reopened when it was connected to the Stilwell Road from India. Its importance diminished after World War II, but it has remained a link in a 2,100-mi (3,400-km) road system from Yangôn, Myanmar, to Chongqing.