Having been a patchy affair so far, the jungle really sets in for the hundred-kilometre trip from Menglun to Mengla (4hr). The first part is slow-going uphill, then the bus suddenly turns along a ridge giving early morning passengers a clear view (best in winter) back down on to a "cloud sea" over the treetops below. Farther on are rock outcrops and small roadside settlements carved out of the forest, and though once over the mountains the trees begin to give way to rubber plantations and cultivated land, it's all pretty impressive. This is the largest of Xishuangbanna's five wildlife reserves, comprised of relatively untouched tracts which the government has set aside to be protected from development, and full of the plants you'll have seen at the Botanic Gardens up the road.

 

Doubtless anything would be a disappointment after this, but MENGLA seems a deliberately ugly town, grey and tumultuous. The main point of interest here lies 2km south near the river at the Bronze Spire Pagoda , originally founded in antiquity by two Burmese monks as a shrine for Buddha relics. With a spire donated by heaven, the pagoda's presence brought lasting peace to the land, though it eventually fell into disrepair and had to be rebuilt in 1759, when Jinghong's Dai ruler contributed thirty thousand silver pieces to cover the pagoda and temple columns in bronze. What happened next is a bit of a mystery, as Mengla was closed to foreign eyes for almost thirty years after the Cultural Revolution, but it's nowhere near this grand today; there are plenty of monks floating around Mengla itself, however, and a smaller temple pagoda on the hill to the west.

There's a proper bus station at Mengla's northern end (vehicles head back to Menglun throughout the day), from where Mengla's main street - with the last bank before Laos - runs south for 1.5km to the far end of town and a depot for southbound vehicles. Take your pick of the dozen or so main street noodle shops, restaurants and hotels (all of which charge ¥30-100 for a double). Plainclothes police are everywhere - even among the Uigur running the kebab stalls - as this is the last major town before the Laos border, 60km southeast.