Yangon

Yangon is the largest city in Myanmar, a country in Asia. Two rivers meet there.

Ships come to its port to load and unload.

Yangon is Myanmar's first city, Universalis says, in the eastern part of the Irrawaddy delta, where the Hlaing River (also called the Yangon River) meets the Pazundaung. Until 1989 its name was usually written Rangoon.

At the census of September 2024, 4,584,622 people were counted in the city. Yangon was the capital until March 2006, when the new city of Naypyidaw, about 300 kilometers to the north, took its place.

Universalis: former capital and first city of Myanmar (Burma), 4.8 million inhabitants at the 2014 census, in the eastern part of the Irrawaddy delta at the confluence of the Hlaing (or Rangoon River) and the Pazundaung; spelled Rangoun or Rangoon until 1989, then Yangôn; since March 2006 no longer the official capital, replaced by the new city of Naypyidaw, 300 km to the north.

Myanmar Department of Population (via City Population), city of Yangon: 2,472,176 (1983), 4,728,524 (2014), 4,584,622 (census 30 September 2024), rank 1; Yangon Region 7,369,989 (2024). City Population notes that part of the 2024 national total is estimated, so the reliability of the 2024 figures is limited.

Look at the big red building with a clock high up in its tower! In front is a green lawn with round, trimmed bushes.

This photo shows the former High Court Building in Yangon on 17 November 2016. It is red with cream stripes and trim, and a tall clock tower with a dome rises from its middle.

In front is a lawn with neatly clipped bushes, where some workers are tending the grass. Beyond the railings, colorful umbrellas and tents line the street.

Commons: own work by Marcin Konsek (Halavar), 17 November 2016, CC BY-SA 4.0, a Commons Quality Image; description: 'The former High Court Building. Yangon, Myanmar.' The recorded position is about 2.4 km south of the city's Wikidata point.

In the picture: a red-and-cream building with red roofs, rows of arched windows and a domed clock tower; a lawn with clipped bushes and a paved path in front; a few workers on the grass, some under umbrellas; stalls with colorful umbrellas and tents, buses and cars along the street. Wikidata dates the High Court Building (Q20991961) to 1911.

In Yangon there are rice mills and mills that make oil. Other factories spin cotton.

Yangon is a big center for trade and offices, Universalis says. Its oldest industries are linked to the port: rice mills, oil mills and timber. From the 1950s, factories spinning cotton, making medicines and making steel were added, along with an oil refinery.

In the city there are lakes too, such as Kandawgyi Lake, about 0.7 kilometers east of the city's center point on Wikidata.

Universalis: industrial activity grew especially from the 1950s: to the traditional food (rice mills, oil mills) and timber industries were added textiles (cotton spinning), a pharmaceutical industry, an electric steelworks and a refinery fed by pipeline from the oil fields of the Irrawaddy valley.

Wikidata: Kandawgyi Lake (Q385991) 0.70 km E and Inya Lake (Q864297) 4.90 km NNW of the city point.