Travel Guide Bandung

Situated on a broad plateau at an altitude of 768 m, Bandung is Indonesia's third-largest city, with a population of over 2.4 million. It is the economic and administrative capital of West Java (Jawa Barat). Founded in the early 19th century, it was transformed by the Dutch into a European-style administrative city. In the 1920s, a new town was built to the north-east, with new buildings now known as Gedung sate (after the spire at the top of the building's skewer-shaped roof) and Dago.Several years later, the Dutch endowed the city with Art Deco and De Stijl architecture, the finest jewel of which remains the Hotel Savoy Homann. At the time, Bandung was dubbed "the Paris of the Orient", thanks to its multitude of parks, gardens and wide, tree-lined avenues. Bandung suddenly became world-famous in April 1955 when it hosted the conference of anti-colonial non-aligned countries.This large, unassuming city (with the exception of its Art Deco downtown) enjoys a cool climate and is surrounded by plantations dating back to colonial times: the Preanger. Today, the city has become Indonesia's technological center, with its aeronautical research facilities. Since 1920, with the creation of the I.T.B. (Bandung Institute of Technology), where Sukarno studied, the city has become an important university center. Bandung is one of the country's most dynamic and creative cities. Unlike Jakarta, women are less veiled and bars are more numerous. The alternative scene in Java is here!