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What You Need To Know

Surabaya is the capital of Jawa Timur (East Java), located on northeastern Java island and along the edge of the Madura Strait and the second-largest-city in Indonesia. At the 2010 census, the city had a population over 2.8 million and an ‘extended metropolitan area’, with more than 9 million inhabitants in several cities and approximately 50 districts spread over non-contigous urban areas including Gresik, Sidoarjo, Mojokerto and Pasuruan regencies, and locally known as Gerbangkertosusila. The national government recognizes only the continuous core metropolitan area (Surabaya, Gresik and Sidarjo) as Greater Surabaya (Zona Surabaya Raya) with a population of 6,484,2060 (2010), making Surabaya now the third largest metropolitan area in Indonesia, after Greater Jakarta and Greater Bandung. The city is known as Kota Pahlawan “city of heroes” due to theIMPORTANCE of the Battle of Surabaya in galvanizing Indonesian and international support for Indonesian independence during the Indonesian National Revolution. Surabaya was once the largest city in Dutch East Indies and virtually the center of trading in the nation, exceeding those of Batavia, competing with the likes of Singapore and Hong Kong.

Area: 374.8 km²

Population: 2,374,658

Currency

  • The Indonesian Rupiah is the official currency.

Economy

 The city is one of the busiest ports in the country. Its principalEXPORTS include sugar, tobacco and coffee. It has a large shipyard, and numerous specialized naval schools. As the provincial capital, Surabaya is also home to many offices and business centres. Surabaya’s economy is also influenced by the recent growth in foreign industries and the completion of the Suramadu bridge. Surabaya is currently in the process of building high rise skyscrapers, including apartments, condominiums, andHOTELS, as a way of attracting foreign people to the city. Surabaya is the mainTRADING port in East Java. Enriched by its facilities, and geography advantages, Surabaya has great economic potential.

Language

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. It is a standardized register of Malay, an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries.

Health

  • Universal Health Coverage. In January 2014, the Indonesian government launched Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN), a scheme to implement universal health care in Indonesia. It is expected that spending on healthcare will increase by 12{fee91b2dbe919e457204dc317670b9fcbe9777519d20b55e09056a3f94aa0afd} a year and reach US$46 billion a year by 2019.

Religion

Religions in Surabaya have co-existed for centuries and the city has rarely seen violence between religious groups, such as during the 1998 political unrest which struck all of Indonesia, where several small churches (primarily Protestant) were targets of bombings. Although around 85{fee91b2dbe919e457204dc317670b9fcbe9777519d20b55e09056a3f94aa0afd} of citizens in Surabaya adhere to Islam, other major religions include Christianity (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodox), of whom the majority are Roman Catholics. The influence of Hinduism is strong in basic Surabayan culture, but only a minority of the population adheres to Hinduism. There is also significant population of Chinese Indonesians who adhere to Buddhism & Confucianism, and a small community of Dutch – Jews who adhere to Judaism.

Transport

Transportation in Surabaya is supported by land and sea infrastructure serving local, regional, and international journeys. Air transport is located at Juanda Airport, Sedati, Sidoarjo). Intracity transport is primarily by motor vehicles, motorcycles and taxis with limited public bus transport available. Surabaya is also a transit city between Jakarta and Bali for ground transportation. Another bus route is between Jakarta and the neighboring island of Madura.

Weather

Surabaya features a tropical wet and dry climate, with distinct wet and dry seasons. The city’s wet season runs from November through June, while the dry season covers the remaining five months. Unlike a number of cities and regions with a tropical wet and dry climate, average high and low temperatures are very consistent throughout the course of the year, with an average high temperature of around 31 degrees Celsius and average low temperatures of around 26 degrees Celsius.