Udon is approximately 560 km from Bangkok. It is a major official and commercial center in northern Isan, Thailand, and the gateway to Laos, northern Vietnam, and southern China.
History
The city's economy was boosted by the proximity to Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base during the Vietnam War and retains reminders of that time in the form of bars, coffee shops, and hotels. "Udon sort of became like Pattaya when the GIs arrived," said a local architect. "Restaurants serving Western cuisine, hotels and nightclubs sprouted up everywhere to meet their needs. It was an extremely busy city back then." The BBC has reported that Udon Thani's Royal Air Force Base was the site of a CIA black site, known to insiders as "Detention Site Green", used to interrogate Abu Zubaydah, a 31-year-old Saudi-born Palestinian, believed to be one of Osama Bin Laden's top lieutenants. In December 2014 the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence published an executive summary of a secret 6,000 page report on CIA techniques. The report alleges that at least eight Thai senior officials knew of the secret site. The site was closed in December 2002. Earlier reports alleged that a Voice of Americarelay station in a rural area of Udon Thani Province, Ban Dung District, was the CIA black site.
Administration
Udon Thani town municipality with an area of. was established on 15 March 1936. On 27 May 1953, the area covered by the municipality was increased to. As a result of the town's continuing growth, the total area of the municipality was enlarged for the second time to. on 31 December 1993. On 25 September 1995 Udon Thani was upgraded to city municipality, and consists of subdistrict Mak Khaeng, 15 villages, 104 communities, 130,531 people in 60,659 households.
Asia Pacific Potash Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian-Thai Development PLC, owns the concession to the Udon North and Udon South potash mines and plans to develop them. Potash deposits in northeast Thailand are believed to contain the world's third-largest—after Canada and Russia—unexploited potash reserves. Potash is one of the main components of agricultural fertilizer.
Climate
Udon Thani has a tropical savanna climate. Winters are fairly dry and very warm. Temperatures rise until April, which is hot with the average daily maximum at. The monsoon season runs from late-April through early-October, with heavy rain and somewhat cooler temperatures during the day, although nights remain warm. The range of reliably recorded temperatures in the city is from to.
