Casinos, high-rises and fraud: The BBC visits a bizarre city built on scams

[Mekong]

The tall, shiny buildings which rise out of the cornfields on the Myanmar side of the Moei river are a sight so jarring you find yourself blinking to be sure you haven't imagined it.

Eight years ago there was nothing over there in Karen State. Just trees, a few roughly built cement buildings, and a long-running civil war which has left this area of Myanmar one of the poorest places on earth. But today, on this spot along the border with Thailand, a small city has emerged like a mirage. It is called Shwe Kokko, or Golden Raintree.

It is accused of being a city built on scams, home to a lucrative yet deadly nexus of fraud, money-laundering and human trafficking. The man behind it, She Zhijiang, is languishing in a Bangkok jail, awaiting extradition to China.

But Yatai, She Zhijiang's company which built the city, paints a very different vision of Shwe Kokko in its promotional videos – as a resort city, a safe holiday destination for Chinese tourists and haven for the super-rich.

The story of Shwe Kokko is also one of the unbridled ambition which has rippled out of China in the last two decades.

She Zhijiang dreamed of building this glittering city as his ticket out of the shadowy world of scams and gambling which he inhabited.

But by aiming so high he has drawn the attention of Beijing, which is now keen to stamp out the fraud operations along the Thai-Myanmar border which are increasingly targeting Chinese people.

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[bust]

Visited one in Tachileik in Shan State. Stayed only a few minutes. Felt incredibly vulnerable. Lots of dodgy characters.

[Coss]

1 minute ago, bust said:

Tachileik

Yes, we stayed about 2 hours, got stopped and searched about 20k down the road in Thailand when we returned...