Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631 km (392 miles; road distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census).

A continuing influx of irregular Chinese immigrants, mostly from Yunnan, since the late 20th century, has reshaped the city's ethnic makeup and increased commerce with China.

[4][5][dead link‍] Despite Naypyidaw's recent rise, Mandalay remains Upper Myanmar's main commercial, educational and health center.

[11] In addition, the king also commissioned the Kuthodaw Pagoda, the Pahtan-haw Shwe Thein Ordination Hall, the Thudamma zayats or public houses for preaching Buddhism and a library for the Pāli Canon.In June 1857, the former royal palace of Amarapura was dismantled and moved by elephants to the new location at the foot of Mandalay Hill, although construction of the palace compound was officially completed only two years later, on Monday, 23 May 1859.

[10] For the next 26 years, Mandalay was to be the last royal capital of the Konbaung dynasty, the last independent Burmese kingdom before its final annexation by the British Empire.

Mandalay ceased to be the capital on 28 November 1885 when the British conquered the city and sent Thibaw Min and his queen Supayalat into exile in India.

Moreover, a group of drunken soldiers set fire to the Pitakataik (Royal Library) which had contained the genealogies of kings and the kingdom's official records.

[13] While Mandalay would continue to be the chief city of Upper Burma during the British colonial rule, the commercial and political importance had irreversibly shifted to Yangon.

The city was in effect defenseless as its firefighting resources were weak, having been lost in earlier bombing, it had no anti-aircraft capacity, and the British RAF had by now withdrawn all its aircraft to India.

After the country gained independence from Britain in 1948, Mandalay continued to be the main cultural, educational and economic hub of Upper Burma.

By the early 1980s, the second largest city of Burma resembled a town with low-rise buildings and dusty streets filled mostly with bicycles.

Huge swaths of land left vacant by the fires were later purchased, mostly by the ethnic Han Chinese, many of whom were recent immigrants from Yunnan.

Many Chinese immigrants from Yunnan and, to a lesser extent, Sichuan poured into Upper Burma in the 1990s and many ending up in Mandalay, living illegally there.

[6] Despite the rise of Naypyidaw, the country's capital since 2006, Mandalay remains Upper Burma's main commercial, educational and health center.

[30] Mandalay is located in the central Dry Zone of Burma by the Irrawaddy river at 21.98° North, 96.08° East, 80 meters (260 feet) above sea level.

The biggest earthquake in its history, occurred on 23 March 1839, an estimated magnitude 8.2 destroyed the former capital Ava and caused extreme destruction in nearby cities.

[41] Myanmar's recent opening stance on tourism means the airport is now receiving a growing number of visitors from Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

The Ayeyarwady River remains an important arterial route for transporting goods such as farm produce including rice, beans and pulses, cooking oil, pottery, bamboo and teak.

Although the number of cars in a city of one million is low, traffic in Mandalay is highly chaotic as thousands of bicycles and (unregistered) motorbikes freely roam around all the lanes of the streets.

[62] Among the leading traditional industries are silk weaving, tapestry, jade cutting and polishing, stone and wood carving, making marble and bronze Buddha images, temple ornaments and paraphernalia, the working of gold leaves and of silver, the manufacture of matches, brewing and distilling.

These migrants brought with them talent, skills, goods and services, and capital, but also purchased most of the shops and real estate in the centre of Mandalay, transforming the economic dynamics of the city.

[65] Identity cards allowed the Chinese immigrants to stay indefinitely and bypass legal barriers on foreign ownership of businesses such as hotels, shops, and restaurants.

[66] The imposition of sanctions by the United States and the European Union in the 1990s and Burma's open-door immigration policy in the 1990s encouraged Chinese entrepreneurs to move to Mandalay.

[67] A substantial increase in foreign direct investment has poured in from mainland China, mostly ending up in Mandalay's real estate sector, through Burmese citizen intermediaries of Chinese ancestry.

[64] Retail outlets were opened by Chinese entrepreneurs, ranging from cement mixing to financial services turning Mandalay into the prosperous business centre it is today.

[70] The transformation of Mandalay into a booming modern metropolis filled with foreign businesses and gem trading centers occurred under the auspices of the entrepreneurial Chinese minority.

[72] Foreign purchasers of jade and gems flock to the city of Mandalay, with clients from Hong Kong continuing to be the source of main customers.

[63][73] More than 50 percent of the commercial business activity generated in Downtown Mandalay is derived from the eclipsing plethora of Chinese-owned shops, hotels, restaurants, and showrooms that predominate the area.

[67] Chinese entrepreneurs and investors have acquired much of Central Mandalay's economic crown jewels and have been disproportionately responsible for generating much of the city's output of commercial business activity relative to their small population size.

[67] In addition, all of Mandalay's shopping malls and hotels were entirely built by Chinese-owned construction and real estate development companies.