Claim: Yangon possesses over 7 million inhabitants.

Yangon -LRB- ရန က န , MLCTS rankun mrui , -LSB- jàɴɡòʊɴ mjo̰ -RSB- ; formerly known as Rangoon , literally : `` End of Strife '' -RRB- is the capital of the Yangon Region of Myanmar , also known as Burma . Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006 , when the military government relocated the capital to the purpose-built city of Naypyidaw in central Myanmar . With over 7 million people , Yangon is Myanmar 's largest city and is its most important commercial centre .   Yangon boasts the largest number of colonial-era buildings in the region , and has a unique colonial-era urban core that is remarkably intact . The colonial-era commercial core is centred around the Sule Pagoda , which reputed to be over 2,000 years old . The city is also home to the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda -- Myanmar 's most sacred Buddhist pagoda . The mausoleum of the last Mughal Emperor is located in Yangon , where he had been exiled following the Indian Mutiny of 1857 .   Yangon suffers from deeply inadequate infrastructure , especially compared to other major cities in Southeast Asia . Though many historic residential and commercial buildings have been renovated throughout central Yangon , most satellite towns that ring the city continue to be profoundly impoverished and lack basic infrastructure .