The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Burma Road
in China and Myanmar, extending from the railhead of Lashio, Myanmar, 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, but India began rebuilding its section of the Stilwell Road in 2007.
