Story

Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the western highland of Java island, it has one of the coolest climates compared to other provincial capitals in Indonesia, situated above sea level (the highest point being at an altitude of in the north, and the lowest at in the south), approximately southeast of Jakarta. Bandung lies in a river basin surrounded by volcanic mountains that provide a natural defense system, which was the primary reason for the Dutch East Indies government's plan to move the capital from Batavia (modern-day Jakarta) to Bandung.

The Dutch first established tea plantations around the mountains in the 18th century. In the early 19th century, a road was constructed to connect the plantation area with Batavia the colonial capital located 180 kilometers (112 miles) to the northwest and to serve as a transport route for the island of Java's defense network. In the early 20th century, the Dutch population in Bandung demanded the establishment of a municipal government (gemeente) a request granted in 1906 and the city subsequently developed into an exclusive resort area for Europeans, complete with hotels, cafés, and shops. Braga Street evolved into an elite district lined with cafés, restaurants, and boutiques; the abundance of shops selling fashion items from Paris earned the city the nickname Parijs van Java.

After Indonesia declared independence in 1945, the city experienced ongoing development and urbanization, transforming from an idyllic town into a dense 16,500 people/km2 (per square kilometer) metropolitan area with living space for over 8 million people. New skyscrapers, high-rise buildings, bridges, and gardens have been constructed. Natural resources have been heavily exploited, particularly by conversion of the protected upland area into highland villas and real estate. Although the city has encountered many problems (ranging from waste disposal and floods to a complicated traffic system resulting from a lack of road infrastructure), it still attracts large numbers of tourists, weekend sightseers, and migrants from other parts of Indonesia. In 2017, the city won a regional environmental sustainability award for having the cleanest air among major cities in ASEAN. The city is also known as a Smart City, leveraging technology to improve government services and social media that alert residents to issues such as floods or traffic jams. The city is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, which it joined in 2015. Bandung is Indonesia's major technology centre.

The first Asian-African Conference, the Bandung Conference, was hosted in Bandung by President Sukarno in 1955 and is now a decennial event. Redevelopment of the existing Husein Sastranegara International Airport (BDO) was completed in 2016. The new larger second airport for Greater Bandung Kertajati International Airport (KJT), facilitates the flow of tourists to the city.

Bandung is a significant cultural hub in Indonesia. Most people in the surrounding province of West Java are ethnically Sundanese, with Sundanese often spoken as a first language, and the standard and informal language for communication in streets, school, work, and markets. As in the rest of the country, standard Indonesian serves as the lingua franca and primary language of government, business, media, and formal education.

Angklung Performance at Saung Angklung Udjo in Bandung. Bandung is one of the cities in Indonesia with a rich musical history, known for traditional instruments such as the Angklung, Suling, and Kacapi, which are commonly used in Tembang Sunda. Since the Dutch colonial era, Bandung has been the center of music in Indonesia. Bandung has notable UNESCO with creative cities with specially music band is majority founded over there.

Bands such as Kahitna, The Changcuters, Super Girlies, SM*SH, Yovie & Nuno, Noah, and Project Pop were founded and established in Bandung.

Opening National Paralympic Week 2016 (XV) in Siliwangi Stadium Bandung is the home of Persib Bandung, a professional football club currently competing in the highest tier of Indonesian football, the Super League. Bandung is also home of Prawira Bandung (ex Garuda Bandung), a professional basketball club currently competes in the Indonesian Basketball League, with its home games in the GOR Citra Arena. The roads leading up to Lembang and Dago are popular routes for mountain cycling on weekends, as Jalan Ir. H. Djuanda and Jalan Buah Batu is zoned as car-free on Sunday mornings.

Other popular sports in Bandung include badminton and golf, with several golf courses surrounding the city.

Bandung has several local daily newspapers, including Pikiran Rakyat, Galamedia, and Tribun Jabar. Several local television stations operate in Bandung, including TVRI Jawa Barat (a public regional station serving West Java, which headquartered in the city), Bandung TV, MQTV and PJTV. Many radio stations, such as Ardan FM, KLCBS, MQFM and OZ Radio, also broadcast from Bandung.

The city of Bandung was featured in the 9th and 10th leg of the American reality series The Amazing Race 23.

Coat of Arms of Bandung during the Dutch colonial era, granted in 1928 The official name of the city during the colonial Dutch East Indies period was Bandoeng. The earliest reference to the area dates back to 1488, although archaeological findings suggest a type of Homo erectus species had long previously lived on the banks of the Cikapundung River and around the old lake of Bandung. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) established plantations in the Bandung area. In 1786, a supply road connecting Batavia (now Jakarta), Bogor, Cianjur, Bandung, Sumedang and Cirebon was constructed. In 1809, Napoleon ordered Governor Herman Willem Daendels to improve the defensive systems of Java to protect against a possible British invasion. Daendels ordered the construction of a road stretching approximately from the west to the east coast of Java, passing through Bandung. In 1810, the road was laid down in Bandung and was named De Groote Postweg (or the 'Great Post Road'), the present-day location of Jalan Asia-Afrika. Under Daendels' orders, R. A. Wiranatakusumah II, the Chief Administrator of the Bandung regency at that time, moved the office from Krapyak, in the south, to a place near a pair of holy city wells (sumur Bandung), the present-day site of the city square (alun-alun). He built his dalem (palace), masjid agung (the grand mosque) and pendopo (public-official meeting place) in the classical Sundanese orientation, with the pendopo facing Tangkuban Perahu mountain, which was believed to have a mystical ambience. In 1856, Bandung also became the capital of the Preanger Regencies Residency, which it would remain until 1925.

The first major railroad between Batavia and Bandung was completed in 1880, boosting the light industry in Bandung. Chinese flocked into the city to help run facilities, services and vendors. The area adjacent to the train station is still recognizable as the old Chinatown district. In 1906, Bandung was given the status of gemeente, and then twenty years later, stadsgemeente.

From the early 1920s, the Dutch East Indies government made plans to move their capital from Batavia to Bandung. Accordingly, during this decade, the Dutch colonial government commenced construction of military barracks, the building housing the colonial Department of State-Owned Enterprises (Department van Gouvernmentsbedrijven, the present-day Gedung Sate) and other government buildings. However, this plan was cut short by World War II, after which the Dutch were not able to re-establish their colony due to the Indonesian National Revolution.

The fertile area of the Parahyangan Mountains surrounding Bandung supports productive tea plantations. In the nineteenth century, Franz Junghuhn introduced the cinchona (kina) plant. With its cooler elevated landscape, surrounded by major plantations, Bandung became an exclusive European resort area. Wealthy plantation owners visited the city on weekends, attracting ladies and business people from the capital, Batavia. Jalan Braga grew into a promenade street with cafés, restaurants and boutique shops. Two art-deco style hotels, Savoy Homann and Preanger, were built in the vicinity of the Concordia Society, a clubhouse for the wealthy with a large ballroom and a theatre.

After Indonesian independence in 1945, Bandung was designated as the capital of West Java province. During the Indonesian National Revolution, some of the most massive battles occurred in and around Bandung. Dutch troops were virtually absent in Java at the end of World War II. To assist the restoration of Dutch sovereignty, British forces established a military presence in several of Java's largest cities, and issued an ultimatum to Indonesian forces in Bandung in an attempt to make them leave the city. In response, on 24 March 1946, much of the southern part of Bandung was deliberately set alight by Indonesian forces as they withdrew.

In 1955, the first Asian-African Conference, also known as the Bandung Conference, was hosted in Bandung by President Sukarno and attended by the heads of states representing twenty-nine independent countries from Asia and Africa. The conference venue was at the Gedung Merdeka, the former Concordia Society building. The conference announced ten points of declaration for the promotion of world peace and opposition against colonialism and is known as the Declaration of Bandung. This was followed by a wave of nationalism and decolonization movements around the globe which remapped world politics. The conference was also the first international conference of people of colour in history. In his book The Color Curtain, Richard Wright claims that there was an epic meaning to the conference for people of colour around the world.

In 1987, the city boundary was expanded by the 'Greater Bandung' (Bandung Raya) plan, with the relocation of higher concentration development zones outside the city in an attempt to dilute population density in the old city. During this development, the city core was often uprooted, with old buildings torn down, lot sizes regrouped and rezoned, changing idyllic residential areas to commercial zones with bustling chain supermarkets, malls, banks and upscale developments.

In 2005, an Asian-African Conference was partly held in Bandung, attended by world leaders including Indonesian President Susilo B. Yudhoyono, President of China Hu Jintao, Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh, President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki and President of Nigeria Obasanjo.

Bandung, the capital of West Java province, is located about southeast of Jakarta. Its elevation is above sea level and is surrounded by up to high Late Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic terrain. The flat of central Bandung plain is situated in the middle of wide of the Bandung Basin; the basin comprises Bandung, the Cimahi city, part of Bandung Regency, part of West Bandung Regency, and part of Sumedang Regency. The basin's main river is the Citarum; one of its branches, the Cikapundung, divides Bandung from north to south before it merges with Citarum again in Dayeuhkolot. The Bandung Basin is an essential source of water for potable water, irrigation, and fisheries, with its of groundwater being a significant reservoir for the city.

The northern section of Bandung is hillier than other parts of the city, and the unique truncated flat-peak shape of the Tangkuban Perahu volcano (Tangkuban Parahu literally means 'upside-down boat') can be seen from the city to the north. Long-term volcanic activity has created fertile andisol soil in the north, suitable for intensive rice, fruit, tea, tobacco, and coffee plantations. In the south and east, alluvial soils deposited by the Cikapundung river predominate.

Geological data show that the Bandung Basin is located on an ancient volcano, known as Mount Sunda, erected up to during the Pleistocene age. Two large-scale eruptions took place; the first formed the basin, and the second (est. 55,000 BCE) blocked the Citarum river, turning the basin into a lake known as "the Great Prehistoric Lake of Bandung". The lake drained away; for reasons which are the subject of ongoing debate among geologists.

The Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel architectural design by Albert Aalbers in 1939 is one of the most significant examples of the Art Deco style for which Bandung is renowned. Bandung is home to numerous examples of Dutch colonial architecture, most notably the tropical Art Deco, dubbed New Indies Style. Henri Maclaine Pont was among the first Dutch architects to recognize the importance of combining each architectural style with local cultural traditions. He stressed that modern architecture should interact with local history and native elements. In 1920, Pont planned and designed buildings for the first technical university in the Dutch East Indies, Technische Hogeschool te Bandung (the present-day Bandung Institute of Technology). He was named a Professor of Architecture at the university. A striking local Sundanese roof style is seen adorning the top of the campus' ceremonial hall and is embedded in his artwork.

In the same year, another Dutch architect J Gerber designed Gouverments Bedrijven (Government Companies) in line with the colonial government's plan to move the capital from Batavia to Bandung. The building is known as Gedung Sate, named after the distinguished small satay-shaped structure on the roof, and is today used as the head office of the West Java provincial government and House of Representatives. The building is an example of a harmonious mixture between West and East architectural styles, particularly the Italian Renaissance style of arch structures in the wings and pendopo-like structures commonly found in Java in the middle section.

Villa Isola, is an art-deco building in the northern part of Bandung, now it serves as the rectorate building of Indonesia University of Education. Several Dutch architects who shaped the city landmarks the architectural blending of modern and native traditions. In the 1930s, Bandung became known as an architectural laboratory due to the many Dutch architects who experimented with new architectural designs. Albert Aalbers added the streamline moderne style to the Art Deco by designing the DENIS bank (1936) and renovating the Savoy Homann Hotel (1939). Charles Prosper Wolff Schoemaker was one of the architects who enormously added native elements in his artworks, including the Villa Isola (1932), Hotel Preanger (1929), the regional military headquarters (1918), Gedung Merdeka (1921) and ITB Rectorate Building (1925).

Though Bandung is known for its many old Dutch architecture buildings, the city is recently going through a high-rise building boom. There are more than 100 high rise buildings in the city, and many more are under construction or planned.

The north of the city serves as a water reservoir for Bandung. However, the area has seen substantial residential development. Several attempts to protect this area have been made, including creating reserves such as the Juanda National Park and Punclut, but development continues. Regular flooding in Bandung's south also presents a real and dangerous ongoing problem.

From mid-2005, Bandung faced another environmental disaster when the city's landfill site was re-evaluated after a garbage slide in 2005 which buried a village, Kampung Gajah, beneath it, killing over a hundred people. The accumulation of of domestic garbage causes severe air pollution by local burning, the spread of disease, and water contamination. The provincial government has failed in its attempts to solve the garbage issue. Nevertheless, it was awarded in 1997 and 2015 as the least polluted city in the country. Further, a regional award in 2017 was also given from ASEAN for the cleanest air among other major cities in ASEAN countries.

Bandung is also well known for its tornado hotspot. The first deadly tornado in the area occurred in Rancaekek (during the Dutch Occupation in 1933 where a tornado struck the town, killing 1 and injuring none, the funnel destroyed 17 homes and left 30 homes badly damaged, many trees were either snapped or downed. Another deadly tornado to occur on Bandung was on 18 December 2014, in Gedebage, the tornado struck the area in the afternoon. It left 85 houses either unroofed or destroyed, a large factory building suffered significant damage, a warehouse levelled and a library suffered roof loss, one person died due to crushed by a collapsed wall.

Bandung experiences a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen: Am) that closely borders a tropical rainforest climate (Af) as the driest month precipitation total is marginally below. March and August are the wettest and driest months, respectively. The average temperature throughout the year tends to be cooler than most cities in Indonesia due to the influence of altitude. The average temperature throughout the year only has little variation due to its location near the equator.