Chinatown City Walk

Your coach transfers you from the harbor to the gate of China Town, just outside the Old City of Kota Tua, in Central Jakarta. Here, you’ll start an approximately 2.5-hours walking tour through the usually crowded wet market to the Chinese Taoist Temple and Fatahilla Square. Along the way, you will discover many aspects of the daily life of its residents and historic facts of the area. It is not as touristy as other Chinatowns you might have visited, but a functioning residential area of Chinese ethnicity.

Glodok is Jakarta's Chinatown with a huge Chinese population which started immigrating to the city around the 17th century, when Jakarta was called Batavia. After thousands of Chinese were massacred by the Dutch around 1741 and the rest expelled from the walled city, they settled outside the city walls in an area called Glodok. Jakarta’s Chinatown is now the largest in Indonesia and one of the oldest in the region.

The Chinese are well known for their trading skill and have always played an important role in Jakarta's economy. Today, Glodok is where the local Chinese come to get their daily groceries at the wet market and food stalls.

Your walk takes you to Vihara Dharma Bhakti (Chinese temple), one of the most interesting sites in Glodok. It has several shrines dedicated to different Taoist Gods and Goddesses, as well as one dedicated to Buddha. Originally built in 1650 and destroyed in 1740 during the Batavia massacres, it is one of the oldest Chinese temples in Jakarta. The present building was re-built in 1755 and offers a peaceful setting for the Chinese to come pray.

Continue your walk to Fatahillah Square the administrative center of old Batavia. See the splendid city hall, from where the immense Asian trading empire was controlled as well as other historic buildings. Most buildings around the square have been restored in an effort to preserve Jakarta’s historic sites, and many of the buildings have been converted into museums.

From this point, you’ll rejoin your coach for the return drive to the harbor.