Hat Yai

Hat Yai is a city in southern Thailand near the Malaysian border, the fifth largest city in Thailand as of 2024 with a city proper population of 191,696 and a district urban population of 406,513; it anchors the Hat Yai-Songkhla Metropolitan Area, home to roughly 650,000 people across several districts, and functions as the business center of the region even though neighboring Songkhla, not Hat Yai, holds the role of provincial capital. Originally a small village called Khok Samet Chun, it grew into a major hub after the Southern Line railway reached it in 1922; the name Hat Yai derives from mahat yai, meaning big mahat tree, a relative of jackfruit. It advanced through sanitary district status in 1935, town status in 1949 and city status in 1995, and today has a higher proportion of Thai Chinese and Thai Malay residents than comparably sized Thai cities. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/