Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, still perhaps better known by its old colonial name
of Rangoon (which remains in widespread circulation to this day), is a city of startling
contradictions. Decades of economic and cultural isolation are still very much in evid-
ence, exemplified by the old downtown district with its endless streets of decaying co-
lonial buildings, erratic electricity and sardine-packed rustbucket buses. The interna-
tionalchainsandlogoswhicharesteadilyconsumingmanyothercitiesintheregionare
conspicuous by their almost complete absence, and the fabric of downtown city life - a
dense honeycomb of pavement cafés, street hawkers, ramshackle markets and soaring
stupas - looks, in places, strangely untouched by the modern world.
And yet the winds of change are already gusting through the city, with streams of late-model
Japanese cars flooding the city streets, along with a rapidly growing number of swanky ho-
tels, formica-clad local fast-food joints, illuminated billboards and shops flogging the latest
smartphones, tablets and other digital accessories. All of which gives the strange impression
of a city divided in time: at once thoroughly modern but also several decades out of date -
which is perhaps the essence of the place's peculiar appeal.
Forvisitors,Yangonisverymuchacityoftwohalves.Theoldcolonialcity-or
downtown
Yangon
,asit'softendescribed-remainsfarandawaythemostabsorbingareainthisrapidly
expanding megalopolis, a fascinating urban landscape of picturesquely decaying colonial ar-
chitecture dotted with gilded Buddhist pagodas, Hindu and Chinese temples, mosques and
markets. North of here stretch the endless suburbs of
modern Yangon
, a largely feature-
less urban sprawl dotted with a sequence of florid Buddhist shrines and the sylvan Inle and
Kandawgyi lakes. Pride of place goes to the stupendous
Shwedagon Pagoda
, one of the
world's most spectacular Buddhist temples, while it's also worth searching out some of the
other pagodas and supersized Buddha statues that dot the area.
