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Mandalay at a glance:

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Though Yangon is the modern day capital, Mandalay - the 'City of Gems' - remains the Golden Land's cultural capital.  To know Mandalay and its pleasant surrounds is to know Myanmar.  Mandalay is located on the central rice growing plains of the Upper Ayeyarwady area.  About 600km north of Yangon, only 80 m above sea level, on the banks of the 2,000km long Ayeyarwady River is Myanmar's second largest city with an estimated population of around one million.  Mandalay is often dusty and quite hot, lacking the green swathe of shade synonymous with Yangon.  However; to the Burmese it is Mandalay, not Yangon that is the true representative of Burmese life, history, culture and the centre of Buddhist learning.  There is always something happening on the busy streets of the former Upper Burmese capital.  By day it is filled with the bustle of colorful locals, and skilled craftsmen plying their trades.  By night the area comes alive with bars and restaurants.  Situated in the heart of Upper Myanmar, the city is at the hub of river routes from China and India and land routes from the Shan massif and Siam beyond.  She throbs with life and trade.  This city of markets and monasteries is the economic epicenter of Upper Myanmar.  It is also an important religious center for Mandalay has as many living monasteries and pagodas as Pagan has dead ones - the monastic population numbers over 100,000.  This palace-city constructed by King Mindon was vast when originally built, housing government offices, personnel and military regiments.  The original moat and walls a mile and a half on each side still stand with their splendid pyatthat spires over each gate.  Within lay the 'forbidden city' - an elaborate system of teak pavilions, throne rooms and halls.  Tragically this was destroyed but it has now been reconstructed to give an impression of the awesome scale of the royal palace and its sumptuous decorations of gold leaf and lacquer.  Around the palace area, the devout king lavished donation upon donation constructing splendid teak monasteries for the royal monks, rest houses for pilgrims, shrines on Mandalay Hill and most significantly the great Kuthodaw Pagoda.  Mandalay has excellent air, rail, road and river connections and is a good base from which to explore the rest of Upper Myanmar.  The delightful hill station of Pyin Oo Lwin (Maymyo) is a short drive away.  There you can see many colonial buildings and even drive around in a stage-coach!  Mandalay is linked by air, rail, road and river with Yangon and other principal towns of Myanmar.  One could choose any one of the four modes of transportation one prefers.  It takes only an hour to fly from Yangon to Mandalay and if one travels by train or car, it takes 12 to 14 hours.  Mandalay is famous for traditional Myanmar arts and crafts.  Two notable ancient crafts -- carving of stone images of the Buddha and the manufacture of gold leaf -- which continue to be pursued even today, should be of particular interest.  To the south of Mandalay, in the neighborhood of Maha Muni Pagoda, there is a whole street devoted to stone- carving. Gold leaf manufacture is concentrated in the south-eastern part of the city.  It is an occupation that is carried on as a cottage industry.  Small bits of gold bullion are laboriously beaten out for days on end to get the required film-like thinness of the leaf.  The beating is done by men and the piecing together of the films of gold leaves by girls at the approaches of pagodas.  Gold leaf is sold in packets which the devotees buy for gilding the pagodas and the images. Other notable arts and crafts in Mandalay include woodcarving, ivory carving and gold embroidery.  People from Mandalay excel in these arts and crafts.  These products are placed among the most popular souvenirs.  In the field of commerce and trade, Mandalay is the busiest trade centre in Upper Myanmar.  Border trade from China, Thailand and India, as well as domestic trade from States and Divisions usually pass through Mandalay.  The city is, thus, the hub of trade and commerce in Upper Myanmar.