Myanmar's $4BN Mega Ghost City

At the heart of Southeast Asia lies the strangest city in the world! Huge twenty-lane highways - completely empty. Massive temples - no one in sight. It’s four times the size of London & six times the size of New York. But apparently, nobody is living here. Today, we will take a deep dive into the city of Naypyidaw!

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Special Thanks to @RobandJenny & Bala Gyi!

0:00 Naypyidaw: The World's Strangest Capital
0:41 Myanmar
1:20 The Strangest Capital in the World
3:10 Inside Naypyidaw
6:33 Why was Naypyidaw Built?
8:23 The Dark Master Plan
11:40 Naypyidaw Today

#megaprojects #construction #abandoned
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[MegaBuildsYT]

What do you think - why was Naypyidaw really built? 🤔

[nyeinchankoko]

I found this video interesting. I was born and raised in Pyinmana which is now part of Nay Pyi Daw. When I was around 13 years old (2003), I heard from elders that something was building around own town. Some workers from my town commuted to development area. I always believed that they were building a big dam (Paung Laung) for electricity project. But after two years, the elders again sharing some unconfirmed rumors about a new city project. They said Pyinmana will become the district/ state capital . But later we knew they were working on a new capital which is similar to Yangon . At that time, no name has been confirmed, people assumed "Yan Lone", "Yan Shin" etc. Those name are hilarious, common dog name. They gave the name "Nay Pyi Daw" when I was 15, just I'm studying for my university entrance exam. The 20 lanes road hadn't been built yet. And there was no big pagoda, the replica of Shwedagon. My school took us a field trip around Nay Pyi Daw with newly operated Buses. We mostly saw constructions in the forest. Pyinmana, Lawei, and Takkon which are former towns in that region were integrated into the Nay Pyi Daw territory. The new city was unlivable, so people lived in nearby towns and commuted to Nay Pyi Daw for work. They developed new towns and roads that are randomly interconnected in the city, and gave Pali names which are very difficult to pronounce. During 2019, I thought whatever the initial intention was for Nay Pyi Daw.We should use the existing infrastructure efficiently without blaming to anyone. That was my thought during civilian ruling, no fear, naively believed everything can be made better. After 2021 Coup, that ideas was gone, once they built something for military purpose, they will use it sometime. Just for the correction, protests did happen in Nay Pyi Daw during 2021 February. I was there. The buses that transport staffs to ministry offices turned around and government officials stopped attending offices. The system almost breakdown. And the first casualty from protest crackdown happened in Nay Pyi Daw. Now, they have easily conquered the territory, no protest, people don't say nothing about them. But the protesters evolved into rebels and attacking military around the country. Nay Pyi Daw actually is being surrounded by battle zones. I don't know what shall I see soon. But something big is going to happen soon in Nay Pyi Daw. I wish this is the last war for Myanmar people. We don't want to see vicious cycles anymore.

[waiminkhant]

I'm a resident of Myanmar who is currently living in Yangon. I found most of the contents in this video are accurate and some of the ideas are possible. We don't know either what is the main intention or plan of the military specifically. Most of everything they broadcast about Myanmar's situation are fake. But one thing sure about is that those mega projects or any other things that the military is planning are not mainly purposed for welfare of the citizens.

[Ruffi]

Egypts new city feels similar in why they moved the government out of Cairo

[hwp]

Local here. Naypyidaw was definitely built for security reasons that would benefit the dictator. Reasons are -
(They = Dictator)
1. Afraid of leaking secrets - They didn't want anyone to know what they are planning or doing. Less people equal less likely to leak top secrets.
2. Strengthening security - The capital city can be planned to defend their high-ranking officials and can also be planned to flee the area when in an emergency situation.
3. They afraid the people - Most of the people in Yangon city (most populated city and old capital) have very unfavorable view on the government (same as the whole country) unsurprisingly and are occasionally protesting.
4. Avoiding the reality - The capital city can be built so that they can't see the poor people living in poor houses when going around the city but in fact most of the citizens are poor.

[bananajoe]

fun fact: The vast roads of naypyi taw were never meant to support dense traffic but rather to enable the emergency landing of the military planes.That is why there is nothing between the right and left lane.

[cortmelor]

Glad you did a separate video on this topic. It’s quite interesting!

[Ragmon]

"When paranoid dictators play Sim City".

[luk]

This city looks like sim city created by someone who plays it first time

[kazhilly]

Naypyitaw was the dream project of former dictator Than Shwe, who built this city specifically as a hiding place for the bad guys, the military generals. Unlike the current dictator Min Aung Hlaing, Than Shwe was more than aware that he was The Bad Guy, and he wanted a place where he could live his last years of retirement in peace, as far away as possible from the people, without any chance of getting arrested for his crimes and be spitted out by the people, which is exactly what happened to Ne Win, the first dictator who took power in 1962. That’s also the reason why Than Shwe not only retired and stepped down, but also why he handed power to the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi, much to the dismay and irritation of Min Aung Hlaing, who was appointed as Than Shwe’s successor as head of the armed forces.
Yes, those 20-lane motorways were designed as a secret escape route for “The Bad Guys”, Than Shwe knew very well how Bad he was, and how afraid he was of facing justice for his crimes.
Whether these escape routes will be used by Min Aung Hlaing is not likely, mainly because Min Aung Hlaing is much more ignorant and even stupid than Than Shwe, but also the problem is that Min Aung Hlaing has Nowhere to escape to…..
By completely sealing off the country from the rest of the world and keeping his crimes hidden from foreign eyes, Than Shwe managed to make a few friends across the world. Burma was known for many years as the most secluded, mysterious and illusive country in the world. But… thanks to the new generation and modern technology like internet, Min Aung Hlaing is no longer capable of keeping his crimes hidden, and right now, No foreign country is willing to accept Min Aung Hlaing as a refugee, Not even his friends, like China, Russia or Belarus; not even Saudi Arabia is willing to provide shelter for this brutal criminal. So, the secret runways in Naypyitaw are Not likely to ever be used for that purpose, and they will remain empty.
And last but not last, Naypyitaw is a ghost city because Nobody actually wants to live there; Most people that live in Naypyitaw were forced to move there under false promises like jobs, but ended up being hardly anything more than personal slaves for the military, working in the empty hotels, cleaners, builders and so on…….

[chanthang]

I remember visiting there around 2006-2007 I was about 6 or 7. I was so fascinated by how clean and colorful the houses were compared to where I was from(Yangon). It’s pretty cool learning about what those colors meant after 17 years later.

[HW-owzp]

Haven't seen anything else from you before but this was pretty solid and there were no garbo ads so much appreciated, I'll subscribe

[dazzlingburritoes]

I lived there for about 10 years but moved back to Yangon last year.

Edit: It's not really that empty. You just found pics taken at the pandemic. But no part of Myanmar is fine. And it's worse than you think.

[skyhigh]

OP: A 90 degree turn on a 16 lane highway doesn't seem like a good idea.
India: Hold my chai

[MrRy]

I live in Myanmar and I'm so happy that some people know us

[gundamzing]

The Top Gear trio ended up playing football on that empty highway, lol!

[mrburnz]

Peterman: "You most likely know it as Myanmar, but it will always be Burma to me."

[porkscratchings]

I still know it as Burma always. So I went to Rangoon a few years back and I had 2 weeks to explore etc, went to Bagan to see the stoopas etc, Lake Inle, Mandalay and when heading back, my driver and guide said do you want to see a strange place and we went yes for sure. Omg! This place was insane, seemed like lockdown lol, nobody around at all except a few military bods but nobody, very weird! Glad to see it again, thanks 👍

[jaysdood]

Burma is beautiful and Burmese are generally just lovely.

[skilledwarman]

Would've liked more details on why that highway is so deadly tbh