Chiang Mai
History

Mangrai founded Chiang Mai in 1294 or 1296 on a site that the Lawa people called Wiang Nopburi.

The city succeeded Chiang Rai as the capital of Lan Na. Pha Yu enlarged and fortified it and built Wat Phra Singh in honor of his father, Kham Fu. With the decline of Lan Na, Chiang Mai lost importance and was occupied by the Taungoo in 1556. It formally became part of the Thonburi Kingdom in 1774, by an agreement with Chao Kavila, after the Thonburi king Taksin helped drive out the Taungoo Bamar. Subsequent Taungoo counterattacks led to Chiang Mai's abandonment between 1776 and 1791;

The modern municipality dates to a sanitary district (sukhaphiban) that was created in 1915; it was upgraded to a city municipality (thesaban nakhon) on 29 March 1935. First covering just 17.5 square kilometres (6.8 sq mi), the city was enlarged to 40.2 square kilometres (15.5 sq mi) on 5 April 1983.

In May 2006 Chiang Mai was the site of the Chiang Mai Initiative, concluded between ASEAN and the "ASEAN+3" countries, (China, Japan, and South Korea). Chiang Mai was one of three Thai cities contending for Thailand's bid to host the World Expo 2020. Ayutthaya was ultimately chosen by the Thai parliament to register for the international competition.

Chiang Mai was one of two tourist destinations in Thailand on TripAdvisor 's 2014 list of "25 Best Destinations in the World", where it stood at number 24. Chiang Mai is also the place where the new idol group CGM48 was founded.
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