Basic Facts about Myanmar

         Occupying the largest area on the South-East Asian peninsula, Myanmar is one of the most pleasant places created by Mother Nature. It has an area of about 680,000 square kilometres — roughly equal to France and United Kingdom put together. Inhabited by a population of over 52 million people belonging to 135 national races, Myanmar can easily be found on the world map, as sharing common borders with China in the north and the north-east. Laos in the east, Thailand in the south- east. India and Bangladesh in the west. In the south- west is the Indian Ocean and Myanmar’s coastline extends from where Myanmar and Bangladesh meet, down southwards, ending in the southern extremity where Myanmar and Thailand meet — making a very long coastline of over 2000 kilometres.

Geography

         Myanmar is situated in Southeast Asia and is bordered on the north and northeast by China, on the east and southeast by Laos and Thailand, on the south by the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal and on the west by Bangladesh and India. The country covers an area of 676,577 square kilometres (261,228 square miles) in the shape of a diamond, 936 kilometres (582 miles) from east to west and 2,051 kilometres (1,275 miles) from north to south.

         It is a land of hills and valleys and is rimmed in the north, east and west by mountain ranges forming a giant horseshoe. Enclosed within the mountain barrier are the flat lands of Ayeyarwady, Chindwin and Sittaung Rivers valleys where most of the country's agricultural land and population is concentrated.

         East Longitude 96°13′and North Latitude 16°45′run through Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. The Myanmar Standard Time, taken as on East Longitude 97 °30′, is 6 hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich meantime.

         The length of contiguous frontier is 3,828 miles (6,159 km) and the coastline from the mouth of Naaf River to Kawthaung is 1,385 miles (2,228 km).

The total length of boundary:
          Myanmar-China 1,370 miles
          Myanmar-Thailand 1,310 miles
          Myanmar-India 832 miles
          Myanmar-Laos 148 miles
          Myanmar-Bangladesh *168.7 miles

         *It consists of two parts, namely the Naaf River boundary (39.5 miles) and the land boundary (129.2 miles).

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