Jiegao sits on a peninsula formed by a bend in the Ruili River, connected to Ruili city by a bridge and separated from Myanmar by a few metres of water on three sides. The area is designated a Border Trade Economic Zone and functions as the main formal crossing point between China and Myanmar in this sector. The river here is narrow enough to shout across, and the Myanmar town of Muse is visible from the Chinese bank.
The border itself is the attraction — you can walk along the river embankment and watch the steady back-and-forth of traders, look across to the Burmese side, and get a tangible sense of how porous this frontier has always been. The jade trading here operates at wholesale volumes, and the streets of Jiegao are lined with dealers who handle stones that have arrived from Myanmar's mines by various means. The formal market buildings, a series of trading halls, are open to visitors and give a clear view of the industry that has made Ruili wealthy.