Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Centre

This guide to the Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Centre traces the ground beneath it: once the site of the Inthakhin pillar, believed to anchor the city's spirit, before the post was moved to Wat Chedi Luang. It follows the land through Chiang Mai's ruling family, from ruler Kawilorot Suriyawong down to his granddaughter Princess Dara Rasami, and into the 1920s, when Bangkok's central government chose this emptied heart of the old city to build a grand provincial hall in a hybrid Western-Siamese style. Step into the old governor's reception room, still furnished as it was for official visits.