The following were taken during my ten-day visit last month to Burma, where I was reporting on the country’s remarkable political opening. The trip took me from the old colonial capital Rangoon, to Naypyidaw, its revolution-proof predecessor four hours’ drive to the north. The new capital, which welcomed thousands of reluctant civil servants in late 2005, has come a long way since my last visit in 2009: gardens have sprung up around the city’s new apartment blocks; a string of new malls has opened near the Hotel Zone; and new centers of recreation, including the popular Water Fountain Garden, are packed with local residents. I even noticed something approaching a traffic jam in the areas around the city’s main market and bus station (though it will take more than a few cars to justify the city’s miles of flood-lit highways).

My upcoming stories on the “Burmese Spring” will be available when they are published here.

A vendor at Yae Kyaw Market, in downtown Rangoon.

A man sells snacks at the foot of the Uppatasanti Pagoda in Naypyidaw, a full-size replica of Rangoon’s Shwedagon Pagoda.

A woman and her child pose for a photo at the Water Fountain Garden, a key fixture of Naypyidaw’s nightlife.

A Burmese family poses for a photo in front of a fountain at the Naypyidaw Zoological Gardens.

Early morning in downtown Rangoon.

Resident in downtown Rangoon, close to Botataung Pagoda.

A sidewalk shrine in Rangoon.

Workers at a chapati stand in Rangoon’s Chinatown district.

Rangoon’s City Hall by night, from the edge of Sule Pagoda.

Commuters on a municipal bus in central Rangoon, close to Sule Pagoda.

A monk watches on as dusk falls at the Shwedagon Pagoda, Rangoon.

A young girl at Botataung Pagoda in central Rangoon.

A fish market in Rangoon’s Chinatown district.

Fish for sale on the streets of central Rangoon.

Burmese schoolgirl, photographed in downtown Rangoon.

Buying dried shrimp at dusk, downtown Rangoon.

A volunteer for the National League for Democracy works at the party’s headquarters in Rangoon.

Naypyidaw’s Uppatasanti Pagoda by night.

“A city of magnificent distances”: a vista of Naypyidaw, as seen from the terrace of the Uppatasanti Pagoda.