Thailand: Akha traders selling Choy Sum or Chinese cabbage at the early morning market in Doi Mae Salong (Santikhiri); Chiang Rai Province. The Akha are a hill tribe of subsistence farmers known for their artistry. Akha people are distributed in small villages among the mountains of China; Laos; Myanmar (Burma); and northern Thailand. Doi Mae Salong was once an impoverished; heavily-armed Kuomintang (KMT) outpost; it is today a tranquil oasis of tea gardens; fruit orchards and Yunnanese-style houses.