Sunday, February 17, 2008

Know More About My Hometown, Jakarta

My hometown, Jakarta, is not a city but a province with special status as the capital of Indonesia. It has a long history that involve many nations so far, with such a great natural and human source. If you want to take some time to visit it, you have to trully understand the potential and the situation that it has. Started with its history, culture, arts, and even transportation in Jakarta.

Jakarta, as the capital city of Indonesia, formerly known as Sunda Kelapa. Afterwards on 22 June 1527, Fatahillah changed the name of Sunda Kelapa into Jayakarta, which is commemorated as the date of birth of the Jakarta city. The name of Jayakarta was then changed into Batavia, and lastly Djakarta, that we use nowadays. In 1966, Jakarta was declared a "special capital city district" , thus gaining a status approximately equivalent to that of a state or province. Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, envisaged Jakarta as a great international city, with openly nationalistic government and modernist project building. One of the projects include monuments, such as The National Monument, symbol of Jakarta.

Located on the northwest coast of the Java island, Jakarta is known as the biggest and the most crowded city in Indonesia. Due to the population of 9 million people consisting of various ethnic groups from all over Indonesia, Jakarta attracts many foreigners as well as domestic immigrants. The influence by foreign nation produces the diversity of art and culture, even languanges. The ethnic of Jakarta is mostly made by two largest groups of population, the Betawi and a significant Chinese community, that make up 6% of the Jakarta population.


The major transportation in Jakarta mostly are car and motorcycles. But it also provides trains, planes, or traditional transportations such as bajaj, and carriage. Despite the presence of many wide roads, Jakarta suffers from congestion due to traffic jams. It is well known for indisiciplined diver behaviour, many transportation law are broken and police are not do their work properly, which invites protest from citizens. Based on this situation, some method to reduce traffic jams is taken. For example, prohibiting fewer than three passengers per car on certain roads, made underpass for some road. The other way was build Transjakarta, service operator on a special bus-line called the busway, which is optimized for busy city routes.

That’s some explanation about the fact and condition in my hometown, Jakarta. Hope this information will help you to understand Jakarta better than before.

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