Yankin Township ( my, ရန်ကင်း မြို့နယ်, ) is located in the north-central part of

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. The township comprises 15 wards, and shares borders with

Mayangon township Mayangon Township ( my, မရမ်းကုန်း မြို့နယ် ; is located in the northern part of Yangon. The township comprises ten wards, and shares borders with Insein Township and Mingaladon Township in the north, North Dago ...

in the north,

Thingangyun township Thingangyun Township (, ) is located in the eastern part of Yangon, Myanmar. The township comprises 38 wards, and shares borders with South Okkalapa township in the north, North Dagon township in the east, Yankin township and Tamwe township in th ...

and

South Okkalapa township South Okkalapa Township ( my, တောင်ဥက္ကလာပ မြို့နယ် ) is located in the eastern part of Yangon. The township comprises 14 wards, and shares borders with North Okkalapa Township in the north, North Dagon Town ...

in the east, the

Inya Lake Inya Lake ( my, အင်းလျားကန်, ''ʔīnyā kǎn'' ; formerly, Lake Victoria) is the largest lake in Yangon, Burma (Myanmar), a popular recreational area for Yangonites, and a famous location for romance in popular culture. Locat ...

Bahan township Bahan Township ( my, ဗဟန်း မြို့နယ်, ) is located in the north central part of Yangon. The township comprises 22 wards, and shares borders with Yankin Township and Mayangon Township in the north, Sanchaung Township and K ...

and Mayangon township in the west, and

Tamwe township Tamwe Township (also Tarmwe Township; my, တာမွေ မြို့နယ်, ) is located in east central Yangon, Myanmar. The township comprises 20 wards, and shares borders with Yankin Township in the north, Thingangyun Township and Min ...

in the south. The township has 13 primary schools, seven middle schools and two high schools. Yankin is a thriving commercial hub of Yangon. Yankin Centre is a leading shopping destination in Yangon, attracting shoppers from around the city. Saya San Road is the main thoroughfare that runs through most of the important places in the township. The Kokkine Swimming Pools, and the 18-hectare (44.5-acre) Myakyuntha Amusement Park are both located here. In 2008, the

National Library of Myanmar The National Library of Myanmar, located in Yankin Township, Yangon, is the national library of Myanmar. Established in 1952, the National Library, along with Yangon University Library, is one of only two research libraries in Yangon. The librar ...

moved to a new site in Yankin Township. In 2011, a new children's hospital opened in the township, occupying the site of an old Ministry of Mining building. Yankin is a mix of upscale and middle class area with a multi-ethnic character. The township has a large

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

community, and a rich collection of Hindu temples, (most of which are dedicated to

Kali Kali (; sa, काली, ), also referred to as Mahakali, Bhadrakali, and Kalika ( sa, कालिका), is a Hinduism, Hindu goddess who is considered to be the goddess of ultimate power, time, destruction and change in Shaktism. In t ...

and

Ganesh Ganesha ( sa, गणेश, ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped Deva_(Hinduism), deities in the Hindu deities, Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in Ganapatya sect. His image is ...

) as well as a large Chinese temple called

Fushan Temple Fushan Temple (; my, ကုက္ကိုင်းဘုရားကျောင်း; also called Fu Shan Si or Fu Sun Si), located on Kaba Aye Pagoda Road in Bahan Township, Yangon, is a Chinese temple founded in January 1875 by overseas Chi ...

, believed to be the largest in Yangon. The Moekaung Pagoda is the principal pagoda of the area, and the annual Moekaung

Pagoda Festival Pagoda festivals ( my, ဘုရားပွဲ; ''paya pwe'') are regular festivals found throughout Burma (Myanmar) that commemorate major religious events in pagoda's history, including the founding of a pagoda and the crowning of the pagoda's ...

attracts a number of people from around the city.

Etymology

Yankin means ''Free of Strife''. The name was given by King

Alaungpaya Alaungpaya ( my, အလောင်းဘုရား, ; also spelled Alaunghpaya or Alaung-Phra; 11 May 1760) was the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). By the time of his death from illness during his campaign in Siam, this f ...

Konbaung Dynasty The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...

in 1755 after he had conquered a small village named ''Thanlyin Kin'' as part of his reunification of the country.

Landmarks

Yankin was home to a number of government ministry headquarters before they were moved to

Naypyidaw Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city outs ...

in 2006. The

Central Bank of Myanmar The Central Bank of Myanmar (; ; abbreviated CBM) is the central bank of Myanmar (formerly Burma). Organisation Its headquarter located in Naypyidaw, and it has branches in Yangon and Mandalay. The Governor is Kyaw Kyaw Maung and three V ...

, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Industries 1, the Ministry of Industries 2, the Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of Forestry all had their main offices here. Yankin Apartments was part of one of the many public housing programs implemented by

U Nu Nu ( my, ဦးနု; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as U Nu also known by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a leading Burmese statesman and nationalist politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma under the pr ...

's government. The following is a list of landmarks protected by the city in Yankin township.

References

{{Administrative divisions of Burma (Myanmar) Townships of Yangon