The site of Kengtung Palace — known in Shan as the Haw — sits near the centre of town. The original palace was a graceful colonial-era structure built in the early 20th century for the Saopha of Kengtung, and it survived into the 1990s. Its demolition by the military government remains a source of grief among Shan people, for whom it represented centuries of autonomous royal tradition.
Today a government guesthouse occupies the grounds. A few outbuildings and parts of the original garden survive, and the footprint of the old palace can still be traced. The palace is worth visiting as a historical footnote even in its reduced state — and the surrounding neighbourhood retains some fine old wooden houses that give a sense of what the town once looked like.