Mandalay
Travel Guide > Asia > Myanmar > Mandalay Division > Mandalay
In this Article
- Introduction
- Neighbourhoods
- Sights and Activities
- Events and Festivals
- Weather
- Getting There
- Getting Around
- Eat
- Drink
- Sleep
- Work
- Learn
- Keep Connected
Join the Hipporoller Challenge
Help the Travel Guide reach 20,000,000 characters and we'll donate 63 hipporollers worth over $6000. Read more.
On Travellerspoint
Contributors
Lavafalls (59%)
from Silver Drops Jewelry Designs
Utrecht (33%)
from http://utrecht.travellerspoint.com
as well as joffre (7%)
Help contribute to this article to share the ad revenue.
Introduction
Mandalay was founded in 1857 as Myanmar's last royal capital. There was a prophecy for many years that a great Buddhist city would be built at the foot of Mandalay Hill on the occasion of the 2,400th jubilee of Buddhism. King Mindon of Myanmar decided to jump the gun and started creating the city in 1857. After completing the city in 1858, by dismantling the former capital of Amarapura and relocating it by elephant, he started to build several major religious sights. The city was captured by the British in the Third Anglo-Burmese War and was created into a colonial city. The city suffered greatly during World War II and was captured by the Japanese on May 2 1942. Mandalay was heavily bombed and was not liberated, by the British, until March of 1945. The palace was almost completely destroyed and not rebuilt till the 1990s.
Today Mandalay is the second largest city in Myanmar with a population just under 1 million people. It is also the religious and cultural center of Myanmar with over 700 pagodas and the home to many religious texts. The city is also starting to become a center of trade for most of northern Myanmar. Mandalay is starting to become a major gateway for trade with China. This is a great city to spend a couple of days touring the sights and watching people. Just watch out for the open air sewers!
Neighbourhoods
Events and Festivals
Weather
Mandalay has a hot and humid tropical climate. Temperatures are well above 30 degrees Celcius during the day and mostly around 20 degrees at night. Temperatures from mid March to May can reach over 40 degrees making this time rather unpleasant for visiting the city. This time is often called the hot dry season.
From June to October is rainy season. There is massive amounts of rainfall this time of year
The best time to visit is during the cool dry season which is December to February. During this period there is still warm and pleasant weather with pleasant nights between 13 and 16 degrees. It usually is dry and rather sunny during these months.
Eat
Drink
Work
Learn
This is version 12. Last edited at 19:44 on Feb 13, 09 by Utrecht (+656). 5 articles link to this page.
Except where otherwise noted, content of this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License