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Myanmar's new capital on film

In the beginning of 2006, the Burmese military dictators decided to move the capital 460 kilometers up north, starting out afresh. Up until now there were no pictures of the newly constructed capital apart from some military sponsored propaganda pics.

Austin Andrews succeeded in taking quite a lot of photos on a recent trip, which lead to this stunning series on his blog. Do go over there, the captions and comments really make for a very interesting read.

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Trishawpowerpoles2

It all seems really empty and artificial, totally different from Mandalay and Rangoon (the capital before Naypyidaw), which were really bustling cities when we visited them in 2002:

Myanmar_2

Myanmar2

If cities really have a soul, as some people would like to believe (and I'm inclined to do so too) I'm pretty curious as to how they will ever succeed in giving the new capital the same 'capital feel' as Yangon or Mandalay (which was always tipped as the 'real centre' of Myanmar.

12 September 2007 |

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