Bandung City Square

Bandung is the capital of West Java province in Indonesia. According to 2015 estimate, it is the third-largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta and Surabaya with over 2.5 million inhabitants, while Greater Bandung is the country's second largest metropolitan area with over 8.5 millions inhabitants. Located 768 metres above sea level, approximately 140 kilometres southeast of Jakarta, Bandung has cooler year-round temperatures than most other Indonesian cities. The city lies on a river basin surrounded by volcanic mountains. This topography provides a natural defense system, which was the primary reason for the Dutch East Indies government's plan to move the colony capital from Batavia to Bandung. The Dutch colonials first established tea plantations around the mountains in the eighteenth century, and a road was constructed to connect the plantation area to the colonial capital Batavia . The Dutch inhabitants of Bandung demanded the establishment of a municipality , which was granted in 1906, and Bandung gradually developed into a resort city for plantation owners. Luxurious hotels, restaurants, cafés, and European boutiques were opened, hence the city was nicknamed Parijs van Java . After Indonesia declared independence in 1945, the city experienced rapid development and urbanization, transforming Bandung from an idyllic town into a dense 16,500 people/km2 metropolitan area, a living space for over 8.5 million people. New skyscrapers, high-rise buildings, bridges, and gardens have been constructed. Natural resources have been heavily exploited, particularly by conversion of protected upland area into highland villas and real estate. Also, although the city has encountered many problems , Bandung still attracts large numbers of tourists, weekend sightseers, and migrants from other parts of Indonesia. The city has won a regional environmental sustainability award for having the cleanest air among other major cities in ASEAN countries in 2017. The city has also become known as a Smart City, leveraging technology to improve government services, including social media, that alert the authorities to issues such as floods or traffic jams The first Asian-African Conference, also known as the Bandung Conference was hosted in Bandung by President Sukarno in 1955. Redevelopment of the international airport was completed in 2016. To improve infrastructure, the construction of a Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Rail and Bandung Metro Kapsul, a type of indigenous Automated People Mover will begin in 2018. The new Bandung Kertajati International Airport opened in June 2018 with a 2,500 meter long runway and only one flight per day to Surabaya.
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