Staring distantly towards Mandalay Palace, merrily temple-topped Yankin Hill is mostly worth climbing for views of greater Mandalay's rice-field setting and of the Shan foothills behind. After a 10-minute climb via the obvious covered stairway you're likely to encounter a couple of domesticated stags – feeding them supposedly brings Buddhist merit. Pagoda walkways turn south along the ridgetop, eventually ducking down into a rocky cleft where devotees splash water on tacky gold fish statues that lie at the feet of a Buddha image.
Cars and motorbikes can drive almost to the hill top from the southeast. Some pick-up 5 (၅) services terminate near the 19th St stairway. Around 300yd back towards Mandalay then 300yd north, Mya Kyauk monastery has a dazzlingly distinctive brassy stupa and is famed for its water.
