Page 61 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

Downtown Yangon Yangon and around 59
Following World War I, Rangoon became the heart of the Burmese independence 1
movement, led by students from the British-created Rangoon University and
culminating in a series of national strikes (in 1920, 1936 and 1938). The British
were finally ousted during World War II, during which the city fell under Japanese
occupation (from 1942 to 1945), before being retaken by the Allies in 1945, after
suffering heavy damage.
Independence
Rangoon became the capital of the new Union of Burma upon independence in 1948.
The city continued to expand exponentially outwards, with new suburbs mushrooming
to the north of the old colonial centre. At the same time, the city’s demographic
make-up changed substantially, with many Burmese of Indian descent, plus the city’s
once sizeable Jewish community and other ethnic groups, leaving following
independence and later during Ne Win’s isolationist rule of the 1960s. Many of the
Tharrawaddy Bago city’s old colonial street names were changed, while in 1989 the country’s military
N rulers changed the city’s name from Rangoon back to Yangon, although the change
HLAWGA Taukkyan Bago
NATIONAL War Cemetery was not recognized by many local and international organizations, and the old name
PARK Ngamoeyeik Creek
Htantabin continues sporadically in circulation right up to the present.
Yangon became a major hotbed of pro-democracy protests, particularly during the
Hlawga
Lake popular uprisings of 1974, 1988 and 2007. Further carnage ensued in 2008, when
Cyclone Nargis devastated Yangon’s industrial infrastructure – although human
SHWEPYI
Hlaing River
THAR Ledaunggan casualties were mercifully few. The city suffered a significant symbolic blow in
Aung Mingalar 2005 with the founding of a new Burmese capital at Naypyitaw, but despite being
Bus Station stripped of capital-city status and losing a few ministerial privileges en route,
Mezali MINGALADON Yangon Yangon remains very much the economic, cultural and political heart of the
HLAING INSEIN International country, with a current population of over five million spreading over an area
THAR YAR Airport NORTH
SEE ‘INSEIN’ MAP of over sixty square kilometres.
OKKALAPA
Pun Hlaing River
Kaba aye Bago River
Hlaing Thar Yar Pagoda
Bus Station SOUTH
OKKALAPA
Pun Hlaing Inya Downtown Yangon
golf Course Lake
BAHAN
Shwedagon The old colonial-era city – or downtown Yangon as it’s now generally known
Pagoda
AHLONE Pazundaung Creek – remains the heart of modern Yangon and far and away its most absorbing
SEE ‘GREATER YANGON THAKETA Thanlyin district. Laid out by the British in the 1850s, downtown comprises a geometrical
gridiron of streets, almost 5km wide and 1km deep, although the original design
YANGON’ MAP
AYEYARWADY STATE Twante Canal Kyaik has proved hopelessly insufficient to deal with the sheer weight of twenty-first-
Seikgu
Dalah
century vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and regularly descends into gridlock, on
Khauk
both the roads and pavements.
Maubin Twante Kanbe Yangon River Pagoda Rapid development notwithstanding, downtown remains one of Asia’s great
Baundawgyoke Pyawbwe colonial-era cityscapes, with streets full of Neoclassical public buildings in various
Pagoda Banbwegon states of monsoon-stained, tropical-overload decay. Superimposed on the old-world
Lake
fabric, the bustling street life of Yangon continues unabated, with roads and pavements
crammed full of more food stalls, touts, shoppers and red-robed monks than you’d
YANGON Ye Le believe possible – this is very much a place where it pays to go slow and savour the
Pagoda
REGION Kyauktan detail. It’s also the place where you’ll get the best sense of Yangon’s rich multicultural
Twante River Danoke heritage, with a dense confusion of thanaka-smeared Burmese, bearded Muslims,
dark-skinned Tamils and pale Chinese, all navigating their way between innumerable
street-side stalls and pavement cafés.
Kawhmu
0 10 Sule Pagoda
kilometres • Sule Pagoda Rd • Daily 5am–9pm • K3000
War Ba Lauk Thauk
Rising out of the very heart of downtown Yangon, the Sule Pagoda is the most visible
Yangon and around of all Burmese temples, its soaring golden stupa providing the old colonial city with
Yangon River
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