Yangon

The largest city and former capital of Myanmar, Yangon retains what may be the largest intact collection of early twentieth-century British colonial architecture in Asia, concentrated in the downtown grid south of Sule Pagoda. The Shwedagon Pagoda, rising 98 metres above Singuttara Hill and plated in gold donated by devotees over centuries, is the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar and is at its most photogenic during the evening when its spire is lit against a darkening sky. The colonial-era Strand Hotel, former post office, and city hall create a concentrated streetscape of Edwardian imperial architecture rarely preserved elsewhere in the region.