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Surabaya (formerly Soerabaja) is Indonesia's second-largest city, and the capital of the province of East Java. It is also one of the biggest city in Southeast Asia. It is located on the northern shore of eastern Java at the mouth of the Mas River and at the side of the Madura Strait. Known as the city of heroes, because of its heroic role in the history of Indonesia. In 2007, the population of the city is approximately 4 million.
Surabaya is commonly said to derive its name from the words sura or suro (shark) and baya or boyo (crocodile), two creatures which, in a local myth, fought each other in order to gain the title of "the strongest and most powerful animal" in the area according to a Jayabaya prophecy. This prophecy tells about a big fight between a giant white shark and a giant white crocodile in seizing the city upstream. Now the two animals are used as the city's logo, the two facing each other while circling the city's monument, the Heroic Monument (also known as Heroes' monument). This folk etymology, though embraced enthusiastically by city leaders, is somewhat dubious. Alternate derivations proliferate: e.g. from the Javanese sura ing baya, meaning "bravely facing danger". Some people consider this Jayabaya prophecy as a great war between Surabaya native people and invaders in 1945, while another story is about two heroes that fought each other in order to be the king of the city. The two heroes were Sura and Baya.
The city is served by Juanda International Airport. For trains, the city has several stations. They are Semut, Pasar Turi, and Gubeng. The city terminal is Bungurasih.
Surabaya is also a transit city between Jakarta and Bali if using the ground transportations. Many tourists go through the city of Surabaya to sight seeing before they come back to Jakarta or continue their journey to Bali. Another bus routes are between Jakarta and Madura island which is nearest to Surabaya.
Tanjung Perak is the main port of the city and is one of the busiest ports in the country. Nowadays, it is also one of the top ten busiest cargo harbors in Southeast Asia. Although the operational of the port is nearly traditional, it is also used to carry modern cargo ships worldwide. The other port of the city is located in Gresik, the city which is located not far from Surabaya. It is not more than an hour drive from Surabaya city centre to Gresik via highway. In the future, Gresik will be the location for the new harbor and Tanjung Perak will be demolished and will be a recreation area for Surabaya.
Juanda International Airport is the second busiest airport in Indonesia in terms of transit passengers. Many passengers transit through the airport. It is famous as a transit airport between West and East Indonesia. And it is also the focused airport of many airlines. In the future, the international airport activities will be removed to the new airport somewhere at Lamongan which will be operated internationally. But the domestic airport activities will remain at the old airport. |
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