Foreigners flock to Myanmar's famed Shwedagon pagoda

October 14, 2012 3:18 pm ...

Yangon - Yangon's famous Shwedagon Pagoda is set to receive a recond-breaking number of foreign tourists this year as travellers flock to Myanmar, news reports said Sunday.

During the first nine months of 2012, some 212,973 foreigners visited the pagoda, just shy of 225,381 visitors for all of last year, the Myanmar Times reported.

Thai tourists were the top visitors to the gilded pagoda, built more than 2,000 years ago, followed by Chinese, South Koreans, Japanese and French.

The pagoda, which charges foreigners an entrance fee of 5 dollars, has earned 1.06 million dollars this year, compared with 1.13 millionin all of 2011.

The shrine was built by ethnic Mon settlers, who called modern-day Yangon "Dagon" after the pagoda.

Myanmar has been enjoying a tourism boom since a nominally elected government came to power last year, pushing through politcal and economic reforms that have shed the country’s previous pariah status.

Last year, an estimated 365,000 foreigners arrived in Yangon, the country’s main gateway, up 22 per cent year-on-year. Between January and April of this year, the number reached 175,000 arrivals, up 35 per cent.//DPA

 http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Foreigners-flock-to-Myanmars-famed-Shwedagon-pagod-30192305.html