Yangon’s vibrant culture is a dim memory. To compensate, residents here get 10 television stations, six more than in Yangon, although most are government channels.

Rent is free for civil servants’ quarters in both cities, but in Naypyitaw the apartments are bigger. Water and electricity are also free here and the city enjoys a 24-hour supply of electricity, a rarity outside of military bases.

“Living conditions here are better,” said a senior clerk from the state mining corporation, who asked not to be quoted by name. “I lived in a small wooden house (in Yangon), but here my apartment has three bedrooms, with electricity and water.”

Some new residents have taken to the city. Myint Khin, the 40-year-old wife of a Railways Department clerk, set up a table outside her apartment block to sell noodle salad.

“I want to supplement our income, and business is good since there are very few shops in Naypyitaw,” she said.

Her husband, a senior clerk, earns nearly $32 a month, while their son, a junior clerk, earns about $22.

Than Than, married to a driver for the mining corporation, was also happy, even in an apartment where the family couch is an old bench seat from a van.

“They have provided us with everything we need,” she said.

Given the widespread distrust of the military rulers, theories abound as to why the junta moved the capital. Some see the answer in the section of town reserved for the military itself, close to hills rumored to be honeycombed with bunkers.

... contd.