Burmese Government Reveals Its Haunted New Capital Naypyidaw

In 2005, the military junta that governed Myanmar became an international joke when they decided to move the capital from Yangon to a newly created city, named Nyapyidaw. They spent over 3 billion USD to build this royal prison where everything looks glamorous but there are nearly no people, making it a ghost town. There is only one local market, two shopping malls and two movie theaters. Except for the downtown area, the rest of the city is nearly empty. To opposition parties, this new capital was the military government’s own royal prison. The road leading up to the congressional building has more than 20 lanes, which makes it look like a landing strip. The government also built numerous defensive emplacements around the presidential compound. In an interview with Apple Daily Hong Kong, a local policeman named James expressed his personal longing to move back to Yangon, simply because life in the new capital is way too boring. Scholars believe that it was the military government’s plan to reestablish its authority by moving the capital from prosperous Yangon to the heavily guarded Nyapyidaw. Most of the buildings are built like castles and there is even a city moat built around the entire administrative district. Unlike the new capital, most antique buildings in the old capital Yangon are preserved due to the nation’s long stagnant economy. According to Moe Moe Lwin, the Director of Yangon Heritage Trust, Myanmar hasn’t had much opportunity to develop in the past few decades, meaning antique buildings have been preserved. While modernization is a common goal for many global cities, it usually comes at the cost of wide swaths of architectural heritage.  Lwin says that Hong Kong is a good example of a city with very few antique buildings remaining because of rapid modernization.