Why Obama is in an almost vacant capital city

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar -- The "what" of President Obama's visit to Myanmar is simple enough: two regional summits complete with flags, big conference rooms and speeches.

The "why," however, of Naypyitaw, Myanmar's largely vacant capital city, is more elusive. The capital is 200 miles north of Myanmar's former capital of Yangon (which used to be known as Rangoon), reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett.

Naypyitaw is the creation of the military junta that ruled the country for decades. The generals announced it as the new capital on Nov. 6, 2005. It's been a ghost town ever since.

The grand parliament building is an exercise in under-used government excess. Naypyitaw's 20-lane superhighway, only blocks from the parliament building, is another unsettling and unoccupied extravagance. The roads are empty, so at least traffic is not a problem.

The city exists for government workers, the military and police, and is one of the few cities in this country with uninterrupted electricity and rare white elephants -- brought in as a tourist attraction.

And placed next to a Buddhist pagoda, a shiny understudy of the nationally revered Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

The government says more than one million people live here, but they're very hard to find.

The market has more shopkeepers than shoppers and the reach for greatness seems misplaced, unlike the donkey carts and livestock that call this enigma of a city home.