Pekanbaru - City of the Light

Pekanbaru is the capital city of Riau, one of the province in Sumatra Island which is has North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau Island, Jambi and Malacca Strait as the borders.
In Bahasa, Pekan means Market and Baru means New so Pekanbaru means New Market, its former name was Senapelan which was a part of Siak Kingdom. It is also a Malay Heritage, the culture here is Malay Culture.

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Pekanbaru is a very neat city, it is very clean that it has won numerous Adipura Award (an annually Award for the cleanest city in Indonesia) and also the city plan is very good but unfortunately Pekanbaru is not a tourist's-oriented city that it has no beautiful natural view. The old fashioned tourist place is the Artificial Lake (Danau Buatan) which is now not so famous anymore.

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Atificial Lake of Pekanbaru

Based on the name, Pekanbaru's city plan is focused on developing "markets" so many people come here primarily to shop. Pekanbaru has many traditional markets that is very well built by the government to comfy people shopping there although this city also has numerous malls. Goods traded here come from many city around Pekanbaru, such as knitted stuffs form West Sumatra, foods from Malaysia, electronic things from Singapore and if you lucky, you'll get it in the cheapest price. Try to go to "Pasar Bawah" if you want to buy fresh seafood for cooking, ceramic jars, carpets and Pekanbaru Souvenirs (chocolates, key chains, shirts).

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There is "Pasar Pusat" for things like Hijabs, fancy clothes, and garments.

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-Architectural Miracles-

Although Pekanbaru has beautiful scenery to attract tourists, it has many beautiful building to capture. Some of them are :

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Masjid Annuur is the most beautiful Masjid in Pekanbaru that located in the heart of the city and it is the most famous city landmark.

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Masjid Senapelan, one of the historical mosque in Pekanbaru, built around 1762 M by Sultan Abdul Jalil Muazzam Syah, the fourth king of Siak Kingdom.

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Soeman HS Library of Riau Province. This building is only around 3 years old and it is already catch many attentions.

and many more beautiful building around the city, either old or new building.

Then, about Food, many kind of food and best restaurants here, but it is a whole new story that needs one whole post regarding the culinary experiences.

One thing to remember, don't forget to zoom over the city in the night because this city is transform into much beautiful city in the night, fulf of city light... yes, we call it The City of the Light.

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