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Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the

Yangon Region Yangon Region(, ; formerly Rangoon Division and Yangon Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in the heart of Lower Myanmar, the division is bordered by Bago Region to the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban to the south, ...

and the largest city of

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(also known as Burma). Yangon served as the

capital of Myanmar The current capital of Myanmar (Burma) is Nay Pyi Taw. The following is a list of political capitals of notable states in Burmese history from the 9th century to the present. The list is generally organised in dynastic and chronological orders ...

until 2006, when the military government relocated the administrative functions to the purpose-built capital city of

Naypyidaw Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city o ...

in north central Myanmar. With over 7 million people, Yangon is Myanmar's most populous city and its most important commercial centre. Yangon boasts the largest number of colonial-era buildings in Southeast Asia, and has a unique colonial-era urban core that is remarkably intact. The colonial-era commercial core is centered around the

Sule Pagoda The Sule Pagoda ( my, ဆူးလေဘုရား; ) is a Burmese Buddhist stupa located in the heart of downtown Yangon, occupying the centre of the city and an important space in contemporary Burmese politics, ideology and geography. Accor ...

, which is reputed to be over 2,000 years old. The city is also home to the gilded

Shwedagon Pagoda The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ); mnw, ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်; officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' ( my, ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, , ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda is a gilded stupa ...

– Myanmar's most sacred and famous Buddhist pagoda. Yangon suffers from deeply inadequate infrastructure, especially compared to other major cities in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

, such as Jakarta,

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

. Though many historic residential and commercial buildings have been renovated throughout central Yangon, most satellite towns that ring the city continue to be profoundly impoverished and lack basic infrastructure.

Etymology

The name ''Yangon'' ( my-Mymr, ရန်ကုန်) is derived from the combination of the Burmese words () and (), which mean 'enemies' and 'run out of', respectively. This word combination can be translated as 'End of Strife'.

History

Early history

Yangon was founded as ''

Dagon Dagon ( he, דָּגוֹן, ''Dāgōn'') or Dagan ( sux, 2= dda-gan, ; phn, 𐤃𐤂𐤍, Dāgān) was a god worshipped in ancient Syria across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many attes ...

'' in the early 11th century () by the

Mon people The Mon ( mnw, ဂကူမည်; my, မွန်လူမျိုး‌, ; th, มอญ, ) are an ethnic group who inhabit Lower Myanmar's Mon State, Kayin State, Kayah State, Tanintharyi Region, Bago Region, the Irrawaddy Delta, and se ...

, who inhabited Lower Burma at that time. Dagon became an important pilgrimage pagoda town, starting in the 14th century, during the

Hanthawaddy Kingdom ( Mon) ( Burmese) , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Pegu , common_name = Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Kingdom / Ramannya (Ramam) , era = Warring states , status = Kingdom , event_pre ...

. Notable governors of Dagon included Princess Maha Dewi, who ruled the town from 1364 to 1392, and her grandniece, Shin Saw Pu, who later became the only female

queen regnant A queen regnant (plural: queens regnant) is a female monarch, equivalent in rank and title to a king, who reigns '' suo jure'' (in her own right) over a realm known as a "kingdom"; as opposed to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigni ...

in Burmese history. Queen Saw Pu built a palace next to the

in the town in 1460 and spent her semi-retired life at that palace until her death in 1471. In 1755, King

Alaungpaya Alaungpaya ( my, အလောင်းဘုရား, ; also spelled Alaunghpaya or Alaung-Phra; 11 May 1760) was the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). By the time of his death from illness during his campaign in Siam, this f ...

, the founder of the

Konbaung Dynasty The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...

captured Dagon, added settlements around it, and called the enlarged town "Yangon". In the 1790s, the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

opened a factory in Yangon. The estimated population of Yangon in 1823 was about 30,000. The

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

captured Yangon during the

First Anglo-Burmese War The First Anglo-Burmese War ( my, ပထမ အင်္ဂလိပ်-မြန်မာ စစ်; ; 5 March 1824 – 24 February 1826), also known as the First Burma War, was the first of three wars fought between the British and Burmes ...

(1824–26), but returned the city to Burmese rule after the war. The city was destroyed by a fire in 1841.

Colonial Rangoon (1852–1948)

The British captured Yangon and all of Lower Burma in the

Second Anglo-Burmese War The Second Anglo-Burmese War or the Second Burma War ( my, ဒုတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် မြန်မာ စစ် ; 5 April 185220 January 1853) was the second of the three wars fought between the Burmese Empire and British Em ...

of 1852, and subsequently transformed Yangon into the commercial and political hub of British Burma. After the war, the British moved the capital of British Burma from Moulmein (present-day

Mawlamyine Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at th ...

) to Yangon. Based on the design by army engineer Lt. Alexander Fraser, the British constructed a new city on a grid plan on delta land, bounded to the east by the Pazundaung Creek and to the south and west by the

Yangon River The Yangon River (also known as the Rangoon River or Hlaing River) is formed by the confluence of the Pegu and Myitmaka Rivers in Myanmar. It is a marine estuary that runs from Yangon (also known as Rangoon) to the Gulf of Martaban of the Andaman ...

. Yangon became the capital of all British-ruled Burma after the British had captured

Upper Burma Upper Myanmar ( my, အထက်မြန်မာပြည်, also called Upper Burma) is a geographic region of Myanmar, traditionally encompassing Mandalay and its periphery (modern Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway Regions), or more broadly speak ...

in the

Third Anglo-Burmese War The Third Anglo-Burmese War ( my, တတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် – မြန်မာစစ်, Tatiya Anggalip–Mran cac), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance conti ...

of 1885. By the 1890s Yangon's increasing population and commerce gave birth to prosperous residential suburbs to the north of Royal Lake (Kandawgyi) and

Inya Lake Inya Lake ( my, အင်းလျားကန်, ''ʔīnyā kǎn'' ; formerly, Lake Victoria) is the largest lake in Yangon, Burma (Myanmar), a popular recreational area for Yangonites, and a famous location for romance in popular culture. Locat ...

. The British also established hospitals including Rangoon General Hospital and colleges including

Rangoon University '') , mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom. , established = , type = Public , rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun , undergrad = 4194 , postgrad = 5748 , city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon , state = Yangon Regio ...

. Yangon was the city where the British sent Bahadur Shah II, the last Mughal emperor, to live in exile after the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

. Colonial Yangon, with its spacious parks and lakes and mix of modern buildings and traditional wooden architecture, was known as "the garden city of the East." By the early 20th century, Yangon had public services and infrastructure on par with London. Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, about 55% of Yangon's population of 500,000 was

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

or South Asian, and only about a third was

Bamar The Bamar (, ; also known as the Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia. With approximately 35 million people, the Bamar make up the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, constituting 68% of th ...

(Burman). Karens,

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, Anglo-Burmese and others made up the rest. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Yangon became the center of the Burmese independence movement, with leftist Rangoon University students leading the way. Three nationwide strikes against British rule in 1920, 1936, and 1938 all began in Yangon. Yangon was under

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

occupation (1942–45), and incurred heavy damage during World War II. The city was retaken by the Allies in May 1945. Yangon became the capital of the Union of Burma on 4 January 1948 when the country gained independence from British rule.

Contemporary Yangon (1948–present)

Soon after Burma's independence in 1948, many colonial-era names of streets and parks were changed to more nationalistic Burmese names. In 1989, the

military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...

changed the city's English name to "Yangon", along with many other changes in English transliteration of Burmese names. (The changes have not been accepted by many Burmese who consider the junta unfit to make such changes, nor by many publications and news bureaus, including, most notably, the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

and foreign nations including the United Kingdom and the United States.) Since independence, Yangon has expanded outwards. Successive governments have built satellite towns such as Thaketa, North Okkalapa and South Okkalapa in the 1950s to Hlaingthaya, Shwepyitha and South Dagon in the 1980s. Today, Greater Yangon encompasses an area covering nearly . During Ne Win's isolationist rule (1962–88), Yangon's infrastructure deteriorated through poor maintenance and did not keep up with its increasing population. In the 1990s, the military government's more open market policies attracted domestic and foreign investment, bringing a modicum of modernity to the city's infrastructure. Some inner city residents were forcibly relocated to new satellite towns. Many colonial-period buildings were demolished to make way for high-rise hotels, office buildings, and shopping malls, leading the city government to place about 200 notable colonial-period buildings under the

Yangon City Heritage List The Yangon City Heritage List is a list of man-made landmarks in Yangon, Myanmar, so designated by the city government, Yangon City Development Committee. The list consists of 188 structures (as of 2001), and is largely made up of mostly religious ...

in 1996. Major building programs have resulted in six new bridges and five new highways linking the city to its industrial back country. Still, much of Yangon remains without basic municipal services such as 24-hour electricity and regular garbage collection. Yangon has become much more indigenous Burmese in its ethnic make-up since independence. After independence, many South Asians and Anglo-Burmese left. Many more South Asians were forced to leave during the 1960s by Ne Win's xenophobic government. Nevertheless, sizeable South Asian and Chinese communities still exist in Yangon. The Anglo-Burmese have effectively disappeared, having left the country or intermarried with other Burmese groups. Yangon was the centre of major anti-government protests in 1974,

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

and 2007. In particular, the

8888 Uprising The 8888 Uprising ( my, ၈၈၈၈ အရေးအခင်း), also known as the People Power UprisingYawnghwe (1995), pp. 170 and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) th ...

resulted in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of Burmese civilians, many of them in Yangoon where hundreds of thousands of people flooded into the streets of the former capital city. The

Saffron Revolution The Saffron Revolution ( my, ရွှေဝါရောင်တော်လှန်ရေး) was a series of economic and political protests and demonstrations that took place during August, September, and October 2007 in Myanmar. The pro ...

saw mass shootings and the use of crematoria in Yangoon by the Burmese government to erase evidence of their crimes against monks, unarmed protesters, journalists and students. The city's streets saw bloodshed each time as protesters were gunned down by the government, most notably during the

, and the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

mass protests, which were both started in Yangon itself, signifying its importance as the cultural centre of

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. In May 2008,

Cyclone Nargis Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis ( my, နာဂစ်, ur, نرگس ) was an extremely destructive and deadly tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar during early May 2008. The cyclone m ...

hit Yangon. While the city had few human casualties, three-quarters of Yangon's industrial infrastructure was destroyed or damaged, with losses estimated at US$800 million. In November 2005, the military government designated

, north of Yangon, as the new administrative capital, and moved much of the government to the newly developed city. Yangon remains the largest city and the most important commercial,

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

and cultural center of Myanmar. On 7 May 2005, a series of coordinated bombings occurred in the city of Yangon, Myanmar. Eleven people were killed in the attack, and one of the 162 people that were injured was a member of the LCMS mission team to Myanmar.

Geography

Yangon is located in Lower Burma (Myanmar) at the convergence of the

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

and

Bago Bago may refer to: Places Myanmar * Bago, Myanmar, a city and the capital of the Bago Region * Bago District, a district of the Bago Region * Bago Region an administrative region * Bago River, a river * Bago Yoma or Pegu Range, a mountain rang ...

Rivers about 30 km (19 mi) away from the

Gulf of Martaban A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodies ...

at 16°48' North, 96°09' East (16.8, 96.15). Its standard time zone is UTC/GMT +6:30 hours. 23 meters above sea level. Due to its location on the Irrawaddy Delta, intertidal flat ecosystems occur adjacent to the city.

Climate

Yangon has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

(Am) under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system. The city features a lengthy wet season from May through October where a substantial amount of rainfall is received; and a dry season from November through April, where little rainfall is seen. It is primarily due to the heavy rainfall received during the rainy season that makes Yangon fall under the tropical monsoon climate category. During the course of year 1961 to 1990s, average temperatures show little variance, with average highs ranging from and average lows ranging from . Yangon is prone to

tropical cyclones A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dependi ...

every time of the year. In 2008,

made landfall as a Category 4 cyclone, making it the worst cyclone on the country's record.

Cityscape

Until the mid-1990s, Yangon remained largely constrained to its traditional peninsula setting between the

, Yangon, and Hlaing Rivers. People moved in, but little of the city moved out. Maps from 1944 show little development north of

and areas that are now layered in cement and stacked with houses were then virtual backwaters. Since the late 1980s, however, the city began a rapid spread north to where

Yangon International Airport Yangon International Airport ( ) is the primary and busiest international airport of Myanmar. The airport is located in Mingaladon, north of central Yangon. All ten Myanmar carriers and about 30 international airlines operate at Yangon Intern ...

now stands. But the result is a stretching tail on the city, with the downtown area well removed from its geographic centre. The city's area has steadily increased from in 1901 to in 1940 to in 1974, to in 1985, and to in 2008.

Architecture

Downtown Yangon Downtown Yangon (also known as the Yangon Central Business District or Yangon CBD; formerly the Cantonment) is the central business district of Yangon, Myanmar, located close to the geographic centre of the metropolitan area. The area features ma ...

is known for its leafy avenues and fin-de-siècle architecture. The former British colonial capital has the highest number of colonial period buildings in south-east Asia. Downtown Yangon is still mainly made up of decaying colonial buildings. The former High Court, the former Secretariat buildings, the former St. Paul's English High School and the

Strand Hotel The Strand (also known as Strand Hotel) is a Victorian-style hotel located in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), built by Aviet and Tigran Sarkie, two of the Sarkies Brothers. The hotel, which opened in 1901, which faces the Yangon River to its south, is ...

are excellent examples of the bygone era. Most downtown buildings from this era are four-story mix-use (residential and commercial) buildings with ceilings, allowing for the construction of mezzanines. Despite their less-than-perfect conditions, the buildings remain highly sought after and most expensive in the city's property market. In 1996, the

Yangon City Development Committee Yangon City Development Committee ( my, ရန်ကုန်မြို့တော် စည်ပင်သာယာရေး ကော်မတီ, abbreviated YCDC) is the administrative body of Yangon, the largest city and former capital of M ...

created a

of old buildings and structures in the city that cannot be modified or torn down without approval. In 2012, the city of Yangon imposed a 50-year moratorium on demolition of buildings older than 50 years. The Yangon Heritage Trust, an NGO started by

Thant Myint-U Thant Myint-U ( my, သန့်မြင့်ဦး ; born 31 January 1966) is an American-born Burmese historian, writer, grandson of former United Nations Secretary-General U Thant, former UN official, and former special adviser to the p ...

, aims to create heritage areas in Downtown, and attract investors to renovate buildings for commercial use. A latter-day hallmark of Yangon is the eight-story

apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

. (In Yangon parlance, a building with no

elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They a ...

s (lifts) is called an apartment building and one with elevators is called a condominium. Condos which have to invest in a local power generator to ensure 24-hour electricity for the elevators are beyond the reach of most Yangonites.) Found throughout the city, eight-story apartment buildings provide inexpensive housing for many Yangonites. The apartments are usually eight stories high (including the ground floor) mainly because city regulations, until February 2008, required that all buildings higher than or eight stories to install lifts. The code calls for elevators in buildings higher than or six stories, likely ushering in the era of the six-story apartment building. Although most apartment buildings were built only within the last 20 years, they look much older and rundown due to shoddy construction and lack of proper maintenance. Unlike other major Asian cities, Yangon does not have any skyscrapers. Aside from a few high-rise hotels and office towers, most high-rise buildings (usually 10 stories and up) are "condos" scattered across prosperous neighborhoods north of downtown such as Bahan,

, Kamayut and Mayangon. Older satellite towns such as Thaketa, North Okkalapa, and South Okkalapa are lined mostly with one to two-story detached houses with access to the city's electricity grid. Newer satellite towns such as North Dagon and South Dagon are in a grid layout. The satellite towns—old or new—receive little or no municipal services.

Road layout

's road layout follows a grid pattern, based on four types of roads: * Broad 49-m wide roads running west to east * Broad 30-m wide roads running south to north * Two narrow 9.1-m wide streets running south to north * Mid-size 15-m wide streets running south to north The east–west grid of central was laid out by British military engineers Fraser and Montgomerie after the

. The city was later developed by the Public Works Department and Bengal Corps of Engineers. The pattern of south to north roads is as follows: one broad wide broad road, two narrow streets, one mid-size street, two more narrow streets, and then another wide broad road. This order is repeated from west to east. The narrow streets are numbered; the medium and broad roads are named. For example, the Lanmadaw Road is followed by -wide 17th and 18th streets then the medium Sint-Oh-Dan Road, the 30-foot 19th and 20th streets, followed by another wide Latha Road, followed again by the two numbered small roads 21st and 22nd streets, and so on. The roads running parallel west to east were the Strand Road, Merchant Road, Maha Bandula (née Dalhousie) Road, Anawrahta (Fraser) Road, and Bogyoke Aung San (Montgomerie) Road. Yangon Kandawgyi Lake

Parks and gardens

The largest and best maintained parks in Yangon are located around

. To the south-east of the gilded stupa is the most popular recreational area in the city –

Kandawgyi Lake Kandawgyi Lake ( my, ကန်တော်ကြီး ; literally "great royal lake", formerly Royal Lake), is one of two major lakes in Yangon, Burma (Myanmar). Located east of the Shwedagon Pagoda, the lake is artificial; water from Inya Lake ...

. The 150-acre (61-ha) lake is surrounded by the 110-acre (45-ha) Kandawgyi Nature Park, and the 69.25-acre (28-ha) Yangon Zoological Gardens, which consists of a zoo, an aquarium and an amusement park. West of the pagoda towards the former Hluttaw (Parliament) complex is the 130-acre (53-ha) People's Square and Park, the former parading ground on important national days when Yangon was the capital. A few miles north of the pagoda lies the 37-acre (15-ha) Inya Lake Park – a favourite hangout place of

Yangon University '') , mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom. , established = , type = Public , rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun , undergrad = 4194 , postgrad = 5748 , city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon , state = Yangon Regio ...

students, and a well-known place of romance in Burmese popular culture. Hlawga National Park and Allied War Memorial at the outskirts of the city are popular day-trip destinations with tourists.

Administration

Yangon is administered by the

(YCDC). YCDC also coordinates

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

. The city is made up of 33 townships and is part of

. Yangon Region is divided into four districts, which overlap with the city's jurisdiction. The current mayor of Yangon is Maung Maung Soe. Each township is administered by a Township Development Committee, alongside local leaders who make decisions regarding city beautification and infrastructure. ''Myo-thit'' (lit. "New Towns", or

satellite town Satellite cities or satellite towns are smaller municipalities that are adjacent to a principal city which is the core of a metropolitan area. They differ from mere suburbs, subdivisions and especially bedroom communities in that they have m ...

s) are not within such jurisdictions. List of Yangon City Townships by District: Yangon is a member of the

Asian Network of Major Cities 21 Asian Network of Major Cities 21 was a body representing the interests of several of Asia's largest capital cities around common themes of importance, including urban planning, sustainability and crisis management. The organization was advocated ...

Transport

Yangon is Burma's main domestic and international hub for air, rail, and ground transportation.

Air

, located 12 miles (19 km) from the centre, is the country's main gateway for domestic and international air travel. The airport has three terminals, known as T1, T2 and T3 which is also known as Domestic. It has direct flights to major cities in Asia, such as

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, and

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

. Although domestic airlines offer service to about forty domestic locations, most flights are to tourist destinations such as Bagan, Mandalay,

Heho Heho ( my, ဟဲဟိုး) is a small town in Kalaw Township, Taunggyi District, Shan State of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is the primary air gateway to tourist areas such as Inle Lake. Heho is connected by NH4 to Sakangyi and Taunggyi, t ...

and

Ngapali Thandwe ("Thandway" in Arakanese; ; formerly Sandoway) is a town and major seaport in Rakhine State, the westernmost part of Myanmar. Thandwe is very ancient, and is said to have been at one time the capital of Rakhine State, then called Arakan ...

, and to the capital

Railways

Yangon Central Railway Station is the main terminus of

Myanmar Railways Rail transport in Myanmar consists of a railway network with 960 stations. The network, generally spanning north to south with branch lines to the east and west, is the second largest in Southeast Asia, and includes the Yangon Circular Railway ...

' rail network whose reach covers Upper Myanmar (

, Mandalay,

Shwebo Shwebo ( my, ရွှေဘိုမြို့ ) is a city in Sagaing Region, Burma, 110 km north-west of Mandalay between the Irawaddy River, Irrawaddy and the Mu River, Mu rivers. The city was the origin of the Konbaung Dynasty, establi ...

), upcountry (

Myitkyina Myitkyina (, ; (Eng; ''mitchinar'') Jinghpaw: ''Myitkyina'', ) is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar (Burma), located from Yangon, and from Mandalay. In Burmese it means "near the big river", and Myitkyina is on the west bank of t ...

), Shan hills (

Taunggyi Taunggyi ( ; Shan: ; Pa'O: ) is the capital and largest city of Shan State, Myanmar (Burma) and lies on the Thazi-Kyaingtong road at an elevation of , just north of Shwenyaung and Inle Lake within the Myelat region. Taunggyi is the fifth la ...

Lashio Lashio ( ; Shan: ) is the largest town in northern Shan State, Myanmar, about north-east of Mandalay. It is situated on a low mountain spur overlooking the valley of the Yaw River. Loi Leng, the highest mountain of the Shan Hills, is located ...

) and the Taninthayi coast (

Dawei Dawei (, ; mnw, ဓဝဲါ, ; th, ทวาย, RTGS: ''Thawai'', ; formerly known as Tavoy) is a city in south-eastern Myanmar and is the capital of the Tanintharyi Region, formerly known as the Tenasserim Division, on the northern bank of ...

Yangon Circular Railway Yangon Circular Railway ( my, ရန်ကုန် မြို့ပတ် ရထား ) is the local commuter rail network that serves the Yangon metropolitan area. Operated by Myanmar Railways, the 39-station loop system connects satellite t ...

operates a 39-station commuter rail network that connects Yangon's satellite towns. The system is heavily used by the local populace, selling about 150,000 tickets daily. The popularity of the commuter line has jumped since the government reduced petrol subsidies in August 2007. In 2017 the government of Japan provided more than US$200 million in finance to assist with a range of works including developing and maintaining the Yangon circular railway line, purchasing new carriages and upgrading signalling.

Rapid transit

The Yangon Urban Mass Rapid Transit is a proposed

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be ...

system, due to begin construction in 2022 and be complete by 2027.

Buses and cars

Yangon has a road network of all types (tar, concrete and dirt) in March 2011. Many of the roads are in poor condition and not wide enough to accommodate an increasing number of cars. The vast majority of Yangon residents cannot afford a car and rely on an extensive network of buses to get around. Over 300 public and private bus lines operate about 6,300 crowded buses around the city, carrying over 4.4 million passengers a day. All buses and 80% of the taxis in Yangon run on

compressed natural gas Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...

(CNG), following the 2005 government decree to save money on imported petroleum. Highway buses to other cities depart from Dagon Ayeyar Highway Bus Terminal for Irrawaddy delta region and Aung Mingala Highway Bus Terminal for other parts of the country. Motor transportation in Yangon is highly expensive for most of its citizens. As the government allows only a few thousand cars to be imported each year in a country with over 50 million people, car prices in Yangon (and in Burma) are among the highest in the world. In July 2008, the two most popular cars in Yangon, 1986/87 Nissan Sunny Super Saloon and 1988 Toyota Corolla SE Limited, cost the equivalent of about US$20,000 and US$29,000 respectively. A sports utility vehicle, imported for the equivalent of around US$50,000, goes for US$250,000. Illegally imported unregistered cars are cheaper – typically about half the price of registered cars. Nonetheless, car usage in Yangon is on the rise, a sign of rising incomes for some, and already causes much traffic congestion in highway-less Yangon's streets. In 2011, Yangon had about 300,000 registered motor vehicles in addition to an unknown number of unregistered ones. Within Yangon city limits, it is illegal to drive trishaws, bicycles, and motorcycles. Since February 2010,

pick-up truck A pickup truck or pickup is a light-duty truck that has an enclosed cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (this cargo bed back end sometimes consists of a tailgate and removable covering) ...

bus lines have been forbidden to run in six townships of central Yangon, namely Latha, Lanmadaw, Pabedan, Kyauktada, Botahtaung and

Pazundaung Township Pazundaung Township ( my, ပုဇွန်တောင် မြို့နယ် ) is a township located in the southeastern part of Yangon, Myanmar. The township consists of ten wards, and shares borders with Botataung Township in the west ...

s. In May 2003, a ban on using car horns was implemented in six townships of Downtown Yangon to reduce

noise pollution Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is ma ...

. In April 2004, the car horn ban was expanded to cover the entire city. On 16 January 2017, as part of public transport reforms, city bus network system

Yangon Bus Service Yangon Bus Service (YBS) is a bus transport network system which started operations on 16 January 2017, serving Myanmar's former capital city of Yangon. It is operated by the Yangon Region Transport Authority (YRTA). History Prior to the imple ...

(YBS) was created by the Yangon Region Transport Authority. YBS is claimed to be a disabled-friendly bus service and have a card payment system. Ride hailing services operated by private corporations such as

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

and Grab are also available in Yangon today.

River

Yangon's four main passenger jetties, all located on or near downtown waterfront, mainly serve local ferries across the river to

Dala Dala may refer to: Places *Dala Airport, Dalarna province, Sweden *Dala, Angola * Dala, Bhutan * Dala, Kano, Nigeria **Dalla Hill, a hill in Kano, Nigeria *Đala, Serbia * Dalas, Khuzestan Province, Iran *Dala Township, Yangon, Myanmar People * ...

and

Thanlyin Thanlyin (; or ; mnw, သေၚ်, ; formerly Syriam) is a major port city of Myanmar, located across Bago River from the city of Yangon. Thanlyin Township comprises 17 quarters and 28 village tracts. It is home to the largest port in the cou ...

, and regional ferries to the

Irrawaddy delta The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Irrawaddy Division, the lowest expanse of land in Myanmar that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, to the south at the mouth of the ...

. The 22-mile (35 km) Twante Canal was the quickest route from Yangon to the Irrawaddy delta until the 1990s when roads between Yangon and the Irrawaddy Division became usable year-round. While passenger ferries to the delta are still used, those to Upper Burma via the Irrawaddy river are now limited mostly to tourist river cruises. In October 2017, a New Yangon Water Bus was launched.

Demographics

Yangon is the most populous city by far in Myanmar. According to the 2014 census, the city had a population of 5.16 million. The city's population grew sharply after 1948 as many people (mainly, the indigenous Burmese) from other parts of the country moved into the newly built satellite towns of North Okkalapa, South Okkalapa, and Thaketa in the 1950s and East Dagon, North Dagon and South Dagon in the 1990s. Immigrants have founded their regional associations (such as Mandalay Association, Mawlamyaing Association, etc.) in Yangon for networking purposes. The government's decision to move the nation's administrative capital to Naypyidaw has drained an unknown number of civil servants away from Yangon. Yangon is the most ethnically diverse city in the country. While Indians formed the slight majority prior to World War II, today, the majority of the population is of indigenous

(Burman) descent. Large communities of Indians/South Asian Burmese and the Chinese Burmese exist, especially in the traditional downtown neighborhoods. A large number of Rakhine and

Karen Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors People * Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand ** Karen languages or Karenic l ...

also live in the city. Burmese is the principal language of the city. English is by far the preferred second language of the educated class. In recent years, however, the prospect of overseas job opportunities has enticed some to study other languages:

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

is most popular, followed by Japanese, and French.

Religions

The primary religions practised in Yangon are

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, Islam, and

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

. Shwedagon Pagoda is a famous religious landmark in the city.

Media

Yangon is the country's hub for the movie, music, advertising, newspaper, and book publishing industries, and is the country's cultural center. All media is heavily regulated by the military government. Television broadcasting is off-limits to the private sector. All media content must first be approved by the government's media censor board,

Press Scrutiny and Registration Division The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division ( my, စာပေစိစစ်နှင့်မှတ်ပုံတင်ဌာန, formerly the Press Scrutiny Board or PSB) is a division under the Ministry of Information, responsible for censo ...

. Most television channels in the country are broadcast from Yangon. MRTV and

Myawaddy TV Myawaddy TV ( my, မြဝတီ ရုပ်မြင်သံကြား, abbreviated MWD) is a Myanmar military-owned propaganda network based in Yangon and Naypyidaw, Myanmar. History Myawaddy TV was launched on the 27 March 1995, in com ...

are the two main channels, providing Burmese-language news and entertainment programs. Other special interest channels are MWD-1 and MWD-2,

MITV U Television Sdn. Bhd. (formerly known as U Telecom Media Holdings Sdn. Bhd. and MiTV Corporation Sdn. Bhd.) is Malaysia's third pay television operator. It was launched on 5 September 2005, after having obtained all the necessary approvals from ...

, the English-language channel that targets overseas audiences via satellite and via internet, MRTV-4 and Channel 7 (Yangon) are with a focus on non-formal education programs and movies, and Movie 5, a pay-TV channel specializing in broadcasting foreign movies. Yangon has three radio stations. Myanmar Radio is the national radio service and broadcasts mostly in Burmese and in English during specific times. Pop culture-oriented Yangon City FM and Mandalay City FM radio stations specialize in Burmese and English pop music, entertainment programs, live celebrity interviews, etc. New radio channels such as Shwe FM and Pyinsawaddy FM can also be tuned with the city area. Nearly all print media and industries are based out of Yangon. All three national newspapers – two Burmese language dailies '' Myanma Alin'' () and '' Kyemon'' (), and the English language ''

The New Light of Myanmar ''The New Light of Myanmar'' (, ; formerly ''The New Light of Burma'') is a government-owned newspaper published by the Ministry of Information and based in Yangon, Myanmar. ''The New Light of Myanmar'' is often viewed as propaganda on part of t ...

'' – are published by the government. Semi-governmental ''

The Myanmar Times ''The Myanmar Times'' ( ), founded in 2000, is the oldest privately owned and operated English-language newspaper in Myanmar. A division of Myanmar Consolidated Media Co., Ltd. (MCM), ''The Myanmar Times'' published weekly English and Burmese-lan ...

'' weekly, published in Burmese and in English, is mainly geared for Yangon's expatriate community. There are over 20 special interest journals and magazines covering sports, fashion, finance, crime, and literature (but never politics). Access to foreign media is extremely difficult. Satellite television in Yangon, and in Burma, is very expensive as the government imposes an annual registration fee of Ks.10,00,000/-, equivalent to around U$600/year. Certain foreign newspapers and periodicals such as the ''

Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...

'' can be found only in a few (mostly downtown) bookstores. Internet access in Yangon, which has the best telecommunication infrastructure in the country, is slow and erratic at best, and the Burmese government implements one of the world's most restrictive regimes of internet control. International text messaging and voice messaging was permitted only in August 2008.

Communication

Common facilities taken for granted elsewhere are luxury prized items in Yangon and Burma. The price of a

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

mobile phone was about K1.1 million in August 2008. In 2007, the country of 55 million had only 775,000 phone lines (including 275,000 mobile phones), and 400,000 computers. Even in Yangon, which has the best infrastructure, the estimated telephone penetration rate was only 6% at the end of 2004, and the official waiting time for a telephone line was 3.6 years. Most people cannot afford a computer and have to use the city's numerous Internet cafes to access a heavily restricted internet, and a heavily censored local intranet. According to official statistics, in July 2010, the country had over 400,000 internet users, with the vast majority hailing from just two cities, Yangon and Mandalay. Although internet access was available in 42 cities across the country, the number of users outside the two main cities was just over 10,000.

Lifestyle

Yangon's property market is the most expensive in the country and beyond the reach of most Yangonites. Most rent outside the centre and few can afford to rent such apartments. (In 2008, rents for a typical apartments in the centre and vicinity range between K70,000 and K150,000 and those for high end condos between K200,000 and K500,000.) Hindu temple procession cart, Yangon

Yangon is home to

pagoda festival Pagoda festivals ( my, ဘုရားပွဲ; ''paya pwe'') are regular festivals found throughout Burma (Myanmar) that commemorate major religious events in pagoda's history, including the founding of a pagoda and the crowning of the pagoda's ...

s (''paya pwe''), held during dry-season months (November – March). The most famous of all, the Shwedagon Pagoda Festival in March, attracts thousands of pilgrims from around the country. Yangon's museums are the domain of tourists and rarely visited by the locals. Most of Yangon's larger hotels offer nightlife entertainment, geared towards tourists and the well-to-do Burmese. Some hotels offer traditional Burmese performing arts shows complete with a traditional Burmese orchestra. The pub scene in larger hotels is more or less the same as elsewhere in Asia. Other options include karaoke bars and pub restaurants in Yangon Chinatown.

Sports

As the city has the best sporting facilities in the country, most national-level annual sporting tournaments such as track and field, football, volleyball, tennis and swimming are held in Yangon. The 40,000-seat

Aung San Stadium The Bogyoke Aung San Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium, located in downtown Yangon, Myanmar. It was built as an athletic ground in 1906, which was completed in 1909 and named as Burma Athletic Association Ground, where many sports were held ...

and the 32,000-seat

Thuwunna Stadium The Thuwunna Youth Training Center Stadium ( my, သုဝဏ္ဏ လူငယ် လေ့ကျင့်ရေး ကွင်း), simply known as the Thuwunna Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Yangon, Myanmar. It is the venue o ...

are the main venues for the popular annual State and Division football tournament. Until April 2009, the now-defunct Myanmar Premier League, consisted of 16 Yangon-based clubs, played all its matches in Yangon stadiums, and attracted little interest from the general public or commercial success despite the enormous popularity of football in Burma. Most Yangonites prefer watching European football on satellite TV. Teams such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City are among the favorite European teams among the Yangonites. It remains to be seen whether the

Myanmar National League The MPT Myanmar National League ( my, မြန်မာ နေရှင်နယ် လိဂ်; abbreviated MNL) is the premier national professional football league of Myanmar. In 2009, the league replaced the Myanmar Premier League, which co ...

, the country's first professional football league, and its Yangon-based club Yangon United FC will attract a sufficient following in the country's most important media market. Yangon is also home to annual the Myanmar Open golf tournament, and the Myanmar Open tennis tournament. The city hosted the 1961 and 1969

South East Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supe ...

. During colonial times,

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

was played mostly by British officials in the city.

First-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

was played in the city in January 1927 when the touring

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

played

and the Rangoon Gymkhana. Two grounds were used to host these matches, the

BAA Ground The Burma Athletic Association Ground (BAA Ground) was a cricket ground in Rangoon, Burma (today Yangon, Myanmar). It was built as an athletic ground in 1906, which was completed in 1909, where many sports were held such as cricket, football and ...

and the Gymkhana Ground. These matches mark the only time Burma and Rangoon Gymkhana have appeared in first-class cricket, and the only time first-class cricket has been played in Burma. After independence cricket all but died out in the country. Yangon has a growing population of skateboarders, as documented in the films Altered Focus: Burma and Youth of Yangon. German non-profit organization

Make Life Skate Life Make Life Skate Life is a non-profit organization that works to create community-built skateparks around the world. Completed Skatepark Projects * 2013 — Holystoked Skatepark — ⁣Bangalore, India * 2014 —⁣ Pura Pura Skatepark⁣ — � ...

has received permission from the

to construct a concrete skatepark at Thakin Mya park in downtown. The park was completed in 2015 and is available free of charge to anyone in the city.

Economy

Yangon is the country's main centre for trade, industry, real estate, media, entertainment and tourism. The city represents about one fifth of the national economy. According to official statistics for FY 2010–2011, the size of the economy of Yangon Region was 8.93 trillion kyats, or 23% of the national GDP. Yangon Pansodan overpass

The city is Lower Burma's main trading hub for all kinds of merchandise – from basic foodstuffs to used cars although commerce continues to be hampered by the city's severely underdeveloped banking industry and communication infrastructure. Bayinnaung Market is the largest wholesale center in the country for rice,

beans A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes thr ...

and

pulses In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...

, and other agricultural commodities. Much of the country's legal imports and exports go through Thilawa Port, the largest and busiest port in Burma. There is also a great deal of informal trade, especially in street markets that exist alongside street platforms of Downtown Yangon's townships. However, on 17 June 2011, the YCDC announced that street vendors, who had previously been allowed to legally open shop at 3 pm, would be prohibited from selling on the streets, and permitted to sell only in their townships of residence. Since 1 December 2009,

high-density polyethylene High-density polyethylene (HDPE) or polyethylene high-density (PEHD) is a thermoplastic polymer produced from the monomer ethylene. It is sometimes called "alkathene" or "polythene" when used for HDPE pipes. With a high strength-to-density ratio, ...

plastic bags have been banned by city authorities. Manufacturing accounts for a sizeable share of employment. At least 14 light industrial zones ring Yangon, directly employing over 150,000 workers in 4,300 factories in early 2010. The city is the centre of country's garment industry which exported US$292 million in 2008/9 fiscal year. More than 80 percent of factory workers in Yangon work on a day-to-day basis. Most are young women between 15 and 27 years of age who come from the countryside in search of a better life. The manufacturing sector suffers from both structural problems (e.g. chronic power shortages) and political problems (e.g. economic sanctions). In 2008, Yangon's 2500 factories alone needed about 120 MW of power; yet, the entire city received only about 250 MW of the 530 MW needed. Chronic power shortages limit the factories' operating hours between 8 am and 6 pm. Construction is a major source of employment. The construction industry has been negatively affected by the move of state apparatus and civil servants to Naypyidaw, new regulations introduced in August 2009 requiring builders to provide at least 12 parking spaces in every new high-rise building, and the general poor business climate. As of January 2010, the number of new high-rise building starts approved in 2009–2010 was only 334, compared to 582 in 2008–2009. Tourism represents a major source of foreign currency for the city although by south-east Asian standards the number of foreign visitors to Yangon has always been quite low—about 250,000 before the

in September 2007. The number of visitors dipped even further following the Saffron Revolution and

. The recent improvement in the country's political climate has attracted an increasing number of businessmen and tourists. Between 300,000 and 400,000 visitors that went through Yangon International in 2011. However, after years of underinvestment, Yangon's modest hotel infrastructure—only 3000 of the total 8000 hotel rooms in Yangon are "suitable for tourists"—is already bursting at seams, and will need to be expanded to handle additional visitors. As part of an urban development strategy, a hotel zone has been planned in Yangon's outskirts, encompassing government- and military-owned land in

Mingaladon Mingaladon Township ( my, မင်္ဂလာဒုံ မြို့နယ် ) is located in the northernmost part of Yangon, Myanmar. The township comprises 31 wards, and shares borders with Hmawbi Township in the north, North Okkalapa Tow ...

Hlegu Hlegu ( my, လှည်းကူး, ) is a small city in Yangon Division, Burma (Myanmar) about 45 km north-east of Yangon. It is located on both sides of the Ngamoyeik River (Ngamoyeik Chaung). Yangon educational facilities has a very high number of qualified teachers but the state spending on education is among the lowest of the world. Around 2007 estimate by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies puts the spending for education at 0.5% of the national budget. The disparity in educational opportunities and achievement between rich and poor schools is quite stark even within the city. With little or no state support forthcoming, schools have to rely on forced "donations" and fees from parents for nearly everything – school maintenance to teachers' salaries, forcing many poor students to drop out. While many students in poor districts fail to reach

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, a handful of Yangon high schools in wealthier districts such as Dagon 1, Sanchaung 2, Kamayut 2, Bahan 2, Latha 2, and TTC provide the majority of students admitted to the most selective universities in the country, highlighting the extreme shallowness of talent pool in the country. The wealthy bypass the state education system altogether, sending their children to private English language instruction schools such as YIEC or more widely known as ISM, or abroad (typically Singapore or Australia) for university education. In 2014, international schools in Yangon cost at least US$8,000 a year. There are over 20 universities and colleges in the city. While

remains the best known (its main campus is a part of popular Burmese culture e.g. literature, music, film, etc.), the nation's oldest university is now mostly a graduate school, deprived of undergraduate studies. Following the 1988 nationwide uprising, the military government has repeatedly closed universities, and has dispersed most of the undergraduate student population to new universities in the suburbs such as

Dagon University Dagon University ( my, ဒဂုံ တက္ကသိုလ် ), located in North Dagon, Yangon, is one of the largest universities in Myanmar. The university, established in 1993, offers bachelor's and master's degrees in liberal arts and sc ...

, the

University of East Yangon The University of East Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန် အရှေ့ပိုင်း တက္ကသိုလ် ), located in Thanlyin in the southeastern suburbs of Yangon, is a liberal arts and sciences university in Myanmar. The univer ...

and the

University of West Yangon The University of West Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန် အနောက်ပိုင်း တက္ကသိုလ် ), located in Htantabin, Yangon Division, is a liberal arts and sciences university in Myanmar. The university offers bache ...

. Nonetheless, many of the country's most selective universities are still in Yangon. Students from around the country still have to come to study in Yangon as some subjects are offered only at its universities. The University of Medicine 1, University of Medicine 2, Yangon Technological University, University of Computer Studies and

Myanmar Maritime University Myanmar Maritime University (MMU) ( my, မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ရေကြောင်းပညာ တက္ကသိုလ် ), located in Thanlyin in the outskirts of Yangon, is the premier university of maritime education i ...

are the most selective in the country. Schools for foreign expatriates include: *

International School of Myanmar On September 26, 2008, YIEC was renamed to ISM (International School of Myanmar). It is located in Hlaing Township in Yangon, Myanmar (formerly Rangoon, Burma). History The International School of Myanmar was founded in 1998 by a group of educat ...

International School Yangon The International School Yangon (ISY; my, အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာကလေးများကျောင်း၊ ရန်ကုန်မြို့) is a private, co-educational day school, which offers an educational ...

Myanmar International School Myanmar International School (MIS) is an independent coeducational day school, (Nursery school to Year 13) located in Yangon, Myanmar. It is one of 18 international schools located in Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), former ...

* Yangon International School *

Lycée français international de Rangoun - Joseph-Kessel In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

* Yangon Japanese School

Health care

The general state of health care in Yangon is poor. According to a 2007 estimate, the military government spends 0.4% of the national budget on health care, and 40% to 60% on defence. By the government's own figures, it spends 849 kyats (US$0.85) per person. Although health care is nominally free, in reality, patients have to pay for medicine and treatment, even in public clinics and hospitals. Public hospitals including the flagship

Yangon General Hospital The Yangon General Hospital (YGH, my, ရန်ကုန် ပြည်သူ့ ဆေးရုံကြီး) is a major public hospital in a compound in Yangon, Myanmar. The 2,000-bed hospital consists of seven medical wards, three surgical ...

lack many of the basic facilities and equipment. Wealthier Yangonites still have access to country's best medical facilities and internationally qualified doctors. Only Yangon and Mandalay have any sizeable number of doctors left as many Burmese doctors have emigrated. The well-to-do go to private clinics or hospitals like Pun Hlaing International Hospital and Bahosi Medical Clinic.

Medical malpractice Medical malpractice is a legal cause of action that occurs when a medical or health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, deviates from standards in their profession, thereby causing injury or death to a patient. The neglige ...

is widespread, even in private clinics and hospitals that serve the well-to-do. In 2009 and 2010, a spate of high-profile deaths brought out the severity of the problem, even for the relatively well off Yangonites. The wealthy do not rely on domestic hospitals and travel abroad, usually

or Singapore, for treatment. The following are healthcare facilities in Yangon in 2010–2011.

Notable sites

Sule Pagoda, Golden stupas, Yangon, Myanmar

2016 Rangun, Katedra Najświętszej Maryi Panny (07)

Pagodas

Botataung Pagoda The Botataung Kyaik De Att Pagoda ( my, ဗိုလ်တထောင်ကျိုက်ဒေးအပ်ဆံတော်ရှင်စေတီတော် ; also spelled Botahtaung; literally "1000 military officers") is a famous pagod ...

* Chaukhtatgyi Buddha Temple * Kyauktawgyi Buddha Temple *

Kaba Aye Pagoda Kaba Aye Pagoda ( my, ကမ္ဘာအေးစေတီ; ; also spelt Gaba Aye Pagoda; lit. World Peace Pagoda), formally Thiri Mingala Gaba Aye Zedidaw, ), is a Buddhist pagoda located on Kaba Aye Road, Mayangon Township, Yangon, Myanm ...

Kyaikkhauk Pagoda Kyaukkhauk Pagoda ( my, ကျိုက်ခေါက်စေတီတော်) is a Buddhist pagoda located in Thanlyin Township, in southern Yangon Region, Myanmar. It is a popular tourist destination and also pilgrimage site for Buddhists. It ...

* Maha Wizaya Pagoda * Ye Le Pagoda * Shwe Pone Pwint Pagoda

Recreation

* Allied War Memorial * Bogyoke Market (Scott's Market) * Hlawga National Park *

(formerly Lake Victoria) *

(formerly Royal Lake) * Kandawmin Garden Mausolea * Maha Bandula Park *

Martyrs' Mausoleum The Martyrs' Mausoleum ( my, အာဇာနည်ဗိမာန်) is a Mausoleum in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), located near the northern gate of Shwedagon Pagoda. The mausoleum is dedicated to Aung San and other leaders of the pre-independence ...

* People's Square and Park * St Mary's Cathedral * Sain Lan So Pyae Garden *

* Yangon Zoological Gardens (Yangon Zoo)

Museums and art galleries

National Museum of Myanmar The National Museum of Myanmar (Yangon), ( my, အမျိုးသား ပြတိုက်), located in Dagon, Yangon, is the major one of the two national museums for Burmese art, history and culture in Myanmar. Founded in 1952, the five- ...

* Myanmar Gems Museum * Bogyoke Aung San Museum * Yangon Drugs Elimination Museum * Yangon Planetarium *

Yangon City Hall Yangon City Hall ( my, ရန်ကုန်မြို့တော်ခန်းမ; YCH) is the city hall of Yangon, the largest city of Myanmar, and the seat of the city's administrative body, Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC). The b ...

Concert halls and theatres

* Yangon National Theatre * Myanmar Convention Centre

Notable people

* Nick Drake, English singer-songwriter * Giorgi Pirtskhalava (born 1965), retired Georgian professional football player * Sein Tun (1939–2011), physicist, university professor and author *

Zainulabedin Gulamhusain Rangoonwala Zainulabedin Gulamhusain Rangoonwala (July 1, 1913 – May 28, 1994) was the co-founder and managing director of the Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank. This became one of the largest cooperative banks in India and also in Asia. Early life an ...

(1913–1994), Indian banker

International relations

Yangon is a member of the

Twin towns – sister cities

Yangon is twinned with: *

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

, South Korea *

Haikou Haikou (; ), also spelled as Hoikow is the capital and most populous city of the Chinese province of Hainan. Haikou city is situated on the northern coast of Hainan, by the mouth of the Nandu River. The northern part of the city is on the ...

, China * Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2012) *

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

, Nepal * Kunming, China (2008) * Nanning, China (2009) *

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,960,048 people. It was fou ...

, Philippines (2017) *

Yangzhou Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north ...

, China (1997)

References

Bibliography

External links

*
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{{Authority control Former national capitals Populated places in Yangon Region Ports and harbours of Myanmar Ports and harbours of the Indian Ocean Populated places established in the 11th century Old Cities of Mon people