Despite its importance as the main road to the Shwedagon Pagoda, this is not a stately or beautiful avenue. It does, however, have the Holy Trinity Anglican Church – inscribed on the Yangon Heritage list.
On the upper block you can find one of Yangon’s largest and newest shopping malls, Junction City, the Pan Pacific Hotel and the grounds of Yangon General Hospital. The middle block is flanked by the two largest sections of the big market, Thein Gyi Zay – the extraordinarily busy and cramped stalls of Thein Gyi Zay block D, and the empty floors and wide staircases of Thein Gyi Zay block C. Block D sells fabrics, bags, shoes, everything really – in both wholesale and retail quantities. The buildings are from the 1960s and 1970s and fairly characterless. The lower block has older buildings – Thein Gyi Zay Block E sells paints, painting supplies and hardware, and further down the shops sell large power tools, pumps, ladders and plumbing supplies.