YANGON, Myanmar—When Barack Obama visits Myanmar for a security conference today, he is unlikely to notice the vacant lot at 233-235 Upper Pansodan Street, in the heart of Yangon's chaotic downtown.

Maha Yangon is a classic tea shop in downtown Yangon, Myanmar. Victoria Milko/for NPR "I do think the tea shop conversations are less popular since the recent boom of smartphones and Facebook.

Myanmar's biggest city Yangon has a distinct old-world feel: blocks of colonial buildings, untouched during decades of poverty and isolation. Now, development could bring them crashing down.

In the Burmese city of Yangon, Myanmar’s Buddhists watched a big screen as leader Aung San Suu Kyi spoke to the nation amid international criticism over the exodus of Rohingya from Rakhine.

In Yangon, more colonial buildings are being preserved as homeowners realise they can profit from heritage. ... and his family moved out of their dilapidated house on 47th Street, downtown Yangon.

Built in the 1890s, when the southeast Asian country was a British colony and called Burma, the synagogue is located in a busy commercial section of downtown Yangon.

Downtown Yangon’s vibrancy owes much to its mass of street vendors. People in stalls, with carts, or on the ground sell everything from newspapers to fish to betel leaves to shoes.

What was once a 15-minute commute from the downtown area to Yangon International Airport – just 16 kilometres away – can now take as long as 90 minutes during peak traffic.