Experience the best of Semarang

Semarang, the capital of Central Java, is a port whose old town, Kota Lama, was a Dutch trading quarter. Brick warehouses and the Gereja Blenduk, a church with a copper dome, stand near the river. Lawang Sewu, meaning a thousand doors, was built as a railway company headquarters in the early twentieth century and is known for its long corridors and stained glass. Sam Poo Kong is a Chinese temple complex linked with the fifteenth-century admiral Zheng He.

The Great Mosque of Central Java has a courtyard of giant umbrellas, and the Tay Kak Sie Temple stands in the old Chinese quarter. Mount Ungaran rises to the south, with the Hindu temples of Gedong Songo on its slopes, and the Ambarawa railway museum keeps a steam rack railway. Borobudur and Yogyakarta lie beyond the hills to the south, and the Karimunjawa islands lie off the coast.

Lumpia Semarang, a spring roll filled with bamboo shoots, is the city's best-known dish, followed by bandeng presto, milkfish cooked until its bones soften, wingko babat, a coconut cake, and tahu gimbal. Days are hot and humid in every month, and the drier weather lasts from May to September.