Welcome to Yangon!
Yangon (Burmese: ရန်ကုန်), formerly known in English as Rangoon, was the capital of Myanmar until it was replaced by Naypyidaw in 2005. Western governments and Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD still use the old English name as a sign of non-recognition of the military government that changed the name. Today, with a population of over 5 million people, it remains the largest city and the economic hub of Myanmar.
Yangon (Burmese: ရန်ကုန်, lit. 'End of Strife'), also known 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 relocated the administrative functions to the purpose-built capital city of Naypyidaw in north central Myanmar. With over 7 million people, Yangon is Myanmar's most populous city and its most important commercial center.
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, which is reputed to be over 2,000 years old. The city is also home to the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda – Myanmar's most sacred and famous Buddhist pagoda.
Yangon was the burial place where the British sent Bahadur Shah II, the last Mughal emperor, to live in exile after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.Yangon suffers from deeply inadequate infrastructure, especially compared to other major cities in Southeast Asia, such as Jakarta, Bangkok, or Hanoi. 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.
