Downtown Yangon

Our walking tour of downtown Yangon teases out the stories and secrets of a city with a turbulent history. As well as visiting the Secretariat and the principal colonial buildings in downtown Yangon, our guide will take you to lesser known and lesser frequented locations which nonetheless have stories to tell.

This walking tour looks at the growth of Yangon from a small Mon village to a multicultural hub. This tour will dive into how visitors from the east and the west have contributed to Yangon’s rich tapestry. We will enter teashops and temples, shake hands with the city’s residents and think about what the future has in store for this remarkable metropolis. There will be plenty of food so come with an empty stomach!

This tour starts at 7AM at the Secretariat and ends in the Indian Quarter. The tour lasts two hours. Contact us for more information.

Yangon Chinatown

Chinatown in Yangon is well-known amongst the city’s inhabitants for the BBQs on 19^th Street, temples, jewellery shops and clan houses. However, the name “Chinatown” (or “Tayout Tan” in Burmese) doesn’t adequately recognize the linguistic, religious and cultural diversity of the three main groups that have settled in the city – Hokkien, Cantonese and Hakka from southeastern China.

It is believed that Yangon’s Chinatown began to emerge as early as the late 1700s, around “China Wharf” established by traders sailing small junks, separated from the main town by a marsh and the district of Tagtale, a neighbourhood where prostitutes and undesirables lived.

In her book “Mapping Chinese Rangoon”, academic Jayde Lin Roberts writes:

“Sino-Burmese who live in Yangon today are generally the descendants of immigrants from Guangdoong and Fujian Provinces who landed in the city after the British defeated the Konbaung dynasty in 1885. Cantonese shipbuilders and carpenters arrived first in the 18th century, followed by Hokkien traders (from Fujian) in the 19th century. In the 19th century, Burmese people came to refer to the Cantonese as let-to (short sleeve), because they were artisans who generally wore short-sleeved shirts and short pants, and to the Hokkien as let-shei (long sleeve), because they were merchants you usually wore long-sleeved shirts and trousers.”

The Cantonese and Hokkien, with mutually unintelligible languages and district cultures, established two separate worlds that were economically and physically divided. The Cantonese carpenters and traders lived and worked on the north side of Canton Road (Mahabandoola Road), and the Hokkien traders established themselves on the south side, dividing Chinatown in half.

The Chinese in British Burma were not the favoured middlemen, but they were third in line after Indian merchants. It is believed that prominent Chinese in Rangoon supported the Burmese nationalist movement in the 1930s through donations and by helping Aung San board a ship to Amoy when on the run from the British authorities.

Although, unlike the Indian community, there was no exodus of Chinese in the early years of General Ne Win’s rule, the anti-Chinese riots of 1967 saw Chinatown pillaged and vandalised, leaving dozens dead, and led to the end of education in standard Chinese in national schools.

When the government of Myanmar reopened its borders to international trade in the 1990s, as with English, standard Chinese became a marketable asset that increased job and business opportunities. Residents of Yangon today will recognise some of the most successful businesses of the Hokkien Sino-Burmese community, such as City Mart and Sein Gay Har shopping centres.

Sampan’s Yangon Chinatown walking tour can take place in the morning or the evening. It includes tasting the local food on offer and lasts about two hours. Contact us for bookings and more information.

The Karen Quarter

Explore Yangon’s Karen Quarter and learn about the history, culture and politics of one of Myanmar’s most important and influential ethnic groups. Volunteers from a local Karen Church will tell you about their faith and you will be offered a bowl of Karen mohinga while listening to the story of one Karen family in their ancestral home.  

Our expert guides will lead you through narrow alleyways and into Church grounds as they weave the story of the Karen. Hear about how and why American missionaries in the early 1800s found Karen communities a receptive audience to the message of Christ. You will explore why the British trusted the Karen more than the Bamar, and how this led to rivalry and in turn bloody communal violence during the Second World War. Our guides will explore the roots of Karen nationalism that culminated in the Battle of Insein in 1949. Hear about Burma’s “four foot General” and the Karen insurgency since.  

This tour takes guests walking through the western Yangon townships of Sanchaung, Ahlone and Kyeemindaing. It starts at 15:00 and you will be walking for approximately two hours. After this you will be invited to join your guide for a beer or drink of your choice and continue to hear more of the remarkable story of the Karen in Myanmar.  

See here practical information for travelling in Myanmar.