Phuentsholing

Phuentsholing
Coordinates	26 ° 51 '  N , 89 ° 23'  E Coordinates: 26 ° 51 '  N , 89 ° 23'  E
Basic data
Country	Bhutan
District	Chukha
Residents	30,000

Phuentsholing (also Phuntsholing ) is a city in the south of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan on the border with India with around 30,000 inhabitants.

From Phuentsholing a road leads via Gedu and Chukha to the capital Thimphu, 172 kilometers away, with a junction to Paro . Phuentsholing can be reached from India by bus on a continuously paved road from Shiliguri , 160 kilometers away , as well as from Darjiling or Kalimpong in the Indian state of West Bengal . The connections lead to the twin border town of Jaigaon on the Indian side.

• 

  Left: Phuentsholing (Bhutan), right: Jaigaon (India), middle: in the background the border gate to Bhutan

• 

  freely passable border gate between Bhutan and India, seen from the side of Bhutan

The border between the two neighboring countries can be crossed within the urban area by Indians and Bhutanese without border formalities. The population of Phuentsholing is therefore composed to a large extent of Indians . Phuentsholing fulfills an important transit function for the import and export of Bhutan, the economic basis of the city is trade. Growing prostitution and drug trafficking are seen as the city's main social problems.

For non-Indian tourists, the city is the only way to enter the country besides the flight to Paro . The southeast border town of Samdrup Jongkhar is not passable for tourists.

In 1964, the then Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigme Dorji was killed in an assassination attempt in Phuentsholing. The politically motivated murder took place against the background of disputes within the country's leading interest groups over the question of the opening up process of Bhutan.

Attractions

• Karbandi monastery