ABOUT MEDAN

Medan is the capital city of North Sumatra province, Indonesia. It is the largest city in Sumatra and the Indonesia's third most populous after Jakarta and Surabaya, with approximately 2.5 million people. Medan means 'field' in Bahasa Indonesia and Malay languages but the name actually originated from the Karonese word 'madan' which means to 'get better' or 'healthy'.

The city located in the north of the province, and has a nearby harbour Belawan, and an international airport Polonia International Airport. It is situated in the fertile swamp at the junction of the Deli and Babura rivers where the original village of Medan Putri was founded by Raja Guru Patimpus in 1590.

The city has a mix of communities, reflecting its pre- and post-independence history. It is famous throughout Indonesia as the home of the Batak people, although the ancestral sites of these people are scattered throughout northern Sumatra. In addition, there is a large ethnic Javanese comunity, largely made of of the descendants of people shipped from Java in the last century as part of the government's transmigration policy, an attempt to relieve the chronic overcrowding on Java.

A highly visible component of Medan's population is the large number of ethnic Chinese, who control much of the business sector. Finally, the city has a sizeable community of Tamil descent, the people known as keling. A well-known Tamil market, is the Kampung Keling. In addition to Indonesian, Javanese, Hokkien, Tamil and English are spoken.