Muse (; ) is the capital town of Mu Se Township (also spelled as Muse Township) in northern Shan State, Myanmar. It is situated on the Shweli River (Nam Mao), and is connected by a bridge and road to Ruili (Shweli, , in Burmese) in Yunnan Province, China. History MuSe, pronounced Mu Zay, is a town situated on the bank of the ShweLi River (Nam Mao in Shan) bordering with China, Yunnan Province. The meaning of Muse is said to be Mu (community) Zay (province) = Community Province. It is one of the towns in ShweLi (toung mao in Shan). Toung Mao (ShweLi) consists of MuSe, NamKham and SeLan. It is not known exactly who the founders of Muse were, and when was it founded. (Edited by Sai Htwe Maung from Muse) The old bridge in Muse, dubbed the "Gun Bridge" by locals in reference to the frequency of illegal armaments trafficking through the bridge, was closed in 2005, replaced by a wider bridge parallel to it. In 2014, the governments of Myanmar and China have been discussing a border dispute in the area of Namkham and Muse. On May 23, 2021, the People's Defense Force, the armed forces of the National Unity Government clashed with Tatmadaw forces in Muse, killing 13 security guards. Transport Muse is today connected to Mandalay via Lashio by the National Highway 3 450 km Asian Highway route 14 (AH14), The old Burma Road links the new road to Bhamo in Kachin State which links to the Ledo Road. Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Road included part of the Burma Road and was rebuilt and upgraded for heavy traffic in 1998 on a Build-Operate-Transfer basis (BOT) by the Asia World Company headed by the son of the former opium warlord Lo Hsing Han. It has cut the journey time from 2 days, even a week in the rainy season, to just 12–16 hours. Muse is also connected to central Burma via the Mandalay-Lashio Northern Shan State Railway. Economy Cross-border trade was banned by Ne Win after the military came to power in Burma in 1962 but the ban was lifted following negotiations in 1988. Bilateral trade has risen steadily since, increasing by 60% in the fiscal year ending 31 March 2008, and constitutes 24% of Burma's trade ranking China as a major trading partner second only to Thailand. Burma exports mainly raw materials such as agricultural produce, fish, timber,