the fires during the 1980s destroyed a lot of buildings. this made a lot of land empty. many chinese people in burma bought this land. a lot of these people had come from yunnan in china. many chinese people came to upper burma and mandalay from yunnan and sichuan in the 1990s. 250,000 to 350,000 people from yunnan came to mandalay in the 1990s. today, about 30% to 40% of the people of mandalay are chinese. the native burmese people complain that mandalay is now like a part of china.