Semarang

Semarang is the capital of Central Java province in Indonesia, a port on the northern coast of the island of Java. A common story traces the name to asem arang, sparse tamarind trees, seen there by the founder Ki Ageng Pandan Arang.

The city counts its birthday from 1547, when his son Pandan Arang II was installed as the first regent. Long before that, in the early 15th century, the fleet of Zheng He, the Ming admiral, anchored on this coast, and the red Chinese temple of Sam Poo Kong marks the cave where he is said to have stayed. The Dutch East India Company took control of the port in the late 17th century, and the first railway in Indonesia ran from Semarang to Tanggung in 1867.

Sido Muncul, based in Semarang, makes jamu, the herbal medicine of Java, and sells the cold remedy Tolak Angin across the country. Cargo for Central Java passes through Tanjung Emas, the port of the city, whose name means golden cape. Lumpia, spring rolls stuffed with bamboo shoots and shrimp, go back to a Chinese cook and his Javanese wife in the 19th century, and bandeng presto, milkfish cooked under pressure until its bones turn soft, is the usual gift brought home from the city.

Lawang Sewu, the Thousand Doors, was built in the early 20th century as the head office of the Dutch railway company and takes its name from its many doors and tall windows. Kota Lama, the old Dutch quarter, grew around a domed Protestant church of the 18th century and keeps rows of warehouses and trading offices from colonial times. Dugderan, a fair held before Ramadan, parades the warak ngendog, a mythical beast with the head of a dragon, the body of a buraq and the legs of a goat, a mix often read as the Chinese, Arab and Javanese roots of Semarang.