Indonesia’s second-biggest city, Surabaya, drew global attention last month for the shocking use of children in Islamist terrorist suicide attacks against three Christian churches and a police headquarters, in which 14 people were killed. While the attacks have raised questions about religious co-existence in the city, they will hopefully only temporarily overshadow Surabaya’s emerging status as an exemplar for urban renaissance in a developing country. Following the radical devolution of power away from Jakarta since the turn of the millennium, Surabaya’s renovation of its infrastructure and social services under its formidable female mayor, Tri Rismaharini, has made it a role model for what can be achieved.

City under fire

Once Java’s illustrious trading hub, Surabaya might have hoped its gradual loss of stature to Jakarta and dowdy modern reputation would make it a less obvious target for Islamist terrorism. But some analysts say the tightening of security in Jakarta and Bali after past terrorist attacks may have made the “City of Work”, as one recent history dubbed it, more vulnerable. While it has a Muslim-majority population, Surabaya has long also had a small but prominent Catholic and Protestant community, including a high-profile Pentecostal megachurch, Graha Bethany. Many of the city’s Christians are ethnic Chinese people prominent in business – and such people have been targets for violence in Indonesia in the past.

Surabaya in numbers

3.5 million – The city’s population (Jakarta, which overtook it in 1920, has 10 million)

33 – Number of shopping megamalls



47 – The city’s Tanjung Perak port’s global ranking as a cargo handler

215 metres – Height of One Icon Residence, its tallest building

History in 100 words

Long a major export gateway for plantation exports such as coffee, sugar and tobacco, Surabaya was an Asian trading hub to rival Shanghai and Singapore during the Dutch East Indies empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the main local port until the mid-20th century, it has been embroiled in most regime changes in the region since the 12th century; this strategic status continues today, with the Indonesian navy headquartered there. Nationalists seized the city after the second world war from the retreating Japanese occupiers, setting the scene for a major showdown with returning Dutch colonists known as the Battle of Surabaya. This conflict galvanised broader global support for Indonesian independence and allowed Surabaya to style itself as the City of Heroes.

Best building: Majapahit hotel

Surabaya’s answer to Singapore’s stately Raffles hotel was built in 1910 by the son of one of the Raffles’ founders and then extended with a majestic art deco lobby in 1936. But it was really imprinted in the national consciousness in 1945 when young independence revolutionaries tore the blue portion from the Dutch flag flying above the hotel to create the red and white Indonesian one.

Street art

Surabaya in sound and vision



The award-winning 2015 animation The Battle of Surabaya both commemorated Indonesia’s finest hour and made a splash on the global anime scene.

The shoegaze revival has officially reached Indonesia, courtesy of Surabaya’s anglo-monikered mopers Cotswolds.

Inside city hall

When little-known city official Tri Rismaharini (known as Ibu Risma) won the mayor’s job in 2010, Surabaya had a dirty industrial image. But since then the indefatigable mayor has won a series of global awards for her renovation of the city’s physical character and public services. It won a Global Green City award from the United Nations in 2017 and was a runner-up in the Lee Kuan Yew World City prize. The latter’s judges said: “Surabaya is an emerging city that is commended for its strong appreciation of culture and for taking a bold urban development strategy to preserve and develop its kampung neighbourhoods, instead of displacing them.” Ibu Risma devotes 30% of the city budget to education and has pushed green space to 20% of cityland with 100 parks (she previously led the city’s parks department).

On the move

A 2015 Castrol global traffic survey declared Surabaya to have the fourth worst traffic congestion in the world with an average 29,880 jams per car each year. But car-free days in key locations and Ibu Risma’s personal eye on the problem via a giant video wall at city hall – part of the Surabaya Intelligent Transport System, a monitoring system that tinkers with signalling according to real-time traffic flow – may be shifting the tide. “I am quite happy to describe Surabaya as now probably the best-run city in Indonesia,” says Bernardus Djonoputro, a town planning and infrastructure expert. “If you try to cross the street at a zebra crossing here, there is more chance the traffic will stop than just about anywhere else in the country.”

What’s next for the city

The tendency for Surabaya to be overlooked by foreign visitors in favour of Jakarta and the world-heritage cultural and natural attractions of central Java could be remedied by a long-talked-about fast train between Jakarta and Surabaya. The first section of the 600km link – which aims to reduce the journey time to six hours – should be finished next year. A smooth train ride is long overdue across one of the most densely populated islands in the world.

Close zoom

Indonesian architecture academic Dyah Erti Idawati takes a sceptical view of Surabaya’s efforts to model itself on Singapore in this article from the Indonesian Journal of Architecture & Environment. And the New York Times drills deeper into “urban mimicry” in this report about an upmarket development unashamedly called Singapore of Surabaya. But for a look at some parts of the city not yet in the thrall of Singaporisation, take this online tour of some interesting neighbourhoods.

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