Everything you always wanted to know about Medan, Indonesia.

I just played a chess game at https://lichess.org with YUGA IZZY who lives in Medan, Indonesia. I never heard of Medan so I looked it up.

Wikipedia - Medan, Indonesia

Medan (Indonesian pronunciation: [meˈdan]); is the capital of North Sumatra province in Indonesia. Located along the northeastern coast of Sumatra island, Medan is the fourth biggest city by population in Indonesia, behind Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung. With 2,097,610 inhabitants at the 2010 census, Medan remains the largest settlement outside Java island and enjoys a diversity of multicultural peoples. Bordered by the Strait of Malacca, Medan is a busy trading city around the island as located near the strait which is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. Medan is the gateway to the western part of Indonesia, accessible via the Port of Belawan and Kuala Namu International Airport, stated the city as the third largest city in the country by economy after Jakarta and Surabaya, this city economy is linked well with Malaysian cities (especially Penang and Kuala Lumpur) and Singapore by trade, service and natural resource exchanges. Both the seaport and the airport are connected to the city center via toll road and railway. Medan also became the first city in Indonesia to have an airport supported with train service.

The city was founded by Guru Patimpus, a Karonese man who named a swampy land in confluence of Deli River and Babura river as Kampung Medan Putri (Village of Medan) as the first settlement. In 1632, the Deli Sultanate was established by Tuanku Gocah Pahlawan, who became its first king. In the 18th century, the eighth king, Sultan Mahmud Al Rasyid Perkasa Alam, started a relationship with the Dutch. Jacob Nienhuys, a Dutch tobacco merchant, pioneered the opening of tobacco plantations in Deli Land. The area's name changed to Medan-Deli when it was established by Dutch tobacco commerce after the formation of the Deli Company. With the help from the 9th Sultanate Sultan Ma'mun Al Rasyid Perkasa Alam, and also the well-known Chinese businessmen Tjong Yong Hian and Tjong A Fie, the rapid development of the economy transformed Medan-Deli into a big trading center with the nickname het land dollar, aka the land of the money. The Deli Railwaywas established for shipping rubber, tea, timber, palm oil, and sugar industries from the city to Belawan, a port town located north of Medan. Medan was briefly the capital of the State of East Sumatra, which was established in 1947 as a result of the Dutch "police actions" against newly-independent Indonesia and later became part of the United States of Indonesia from 1949 to 1950. Following the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia, Medan became the capital of North Sumatra in mid-1950.

Medan was dubbed by the Dutch Parijs van Sumatra due to the city's resemblance to Paris. Lamudi, a worldwide real estate portal, recognized Medan as one among six cities in Asia to feature and preserve several colonial architectural sites, while accompanying its growth as a metropolitan city. Medan is also known as "One million shophouses city", due to the majority of the population of work in the trade sector which that many found various shophouses in many corner of the city.

In recent years, the city has undergone rapid development, and has seen large scale infrastructure projects such as a new airport, seaport, elevated railroad, toll roads, and a planned mass rapid transit system. Residential property prices in Medan have also trended upward over the period from 2013 to the first quarter of 2015, according to Bank Indonesia (BI). According to BI, Medan’s residential property price index rose from 205.24 in the fourth quarter of 2013 to 212.17 in the fourth quarter of 2014, and to 214.41 in the first quarter of 2015.

Batak (including Mandailing and Karo people) and Javanese are the major ethnic groups in Medan, with sizeable Chinese, Minangkabau and Malay populations and smaller groups of Acehnese, Indians, Nias, and Sundanese people. Medan also has foreign residents from India, Sri Lanka Bangladesh, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Middle East and other Asian countries.

RELIGIONS:

Medan is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Indonesia. There are large adherents in all four major religions of Indonesia in the city. Many houses of worship from every faith can be found easily in every corner of the city. Muslims constitutes almost 60 percent of all residents; most of those who follow Islam are the Malay, Javanese, Minangkabau, Mandailing, Acehnese and small community of other sub-Batak ethnics and Indian. Mosques and Halal food are quite easy to find anywhere around the city. Christianity is the second largest religion, constituting around 28 percent, most are Protestants and the remainder (around 7 percent out of all Christians) are Catholics. The most known Christian followers are the Bataks (Toba, Karo, Simalungun, Pakpak, Angkola) and Nias while the rest Christians are Chinese, Indian, and Javanese community. The HKBP, GBKP and Methodist are the biggest Christian denominations in Medan.

Buddhism formed around 10 percent, with the Chinese being the largest group of followers. Most Buddhists in Medan follow Mahayana Buddhism. The followers worship Buddha, Maitreya and also Avalokitesvara. Hindu are the 4th largest religion at around 2.15 percent. The Indonesian government does not include Sikhs as an official religion, but the majority of the Indians who are living in Medan are followers. Hinduism in Medan is quite different from other parts of Indonesia where the branch is the Balinese version of Hinduism and the major Gods worshipped include Murugan, Shiva, Mariamman and Krishna. The last registered religion in Medan are Confucianism or in Indonesian known as Konghucu, mostly adherent are the Chinese, the Taoism and Chinese Folk religion are also including as Confucian in ID Card, Confucius, Mazu and Guandi are the most worshipped God and Goddesses for this religion.