During the early twentieth century colonial era, Bandung was known as "Parijs van Java" or the Paris of Java. The nick name was probably given because of the city's European atmosphere. Nobody, however, knows exactly when that nick name was first used or who gave it, but an excursion guide book for the Priangan area (where Bandung is located) published in 1906 had already used the name. Many things have of course changed since then. While the city still has some European heritage, the European feel has since then been replaced by more local colors. The name, however, is still frequently invoked to bring back the memory of the good old days when the city was a beautiful high land resort town of less than 200,000 population.
As part of the efforts to bring the good old days back to life, a resort lifestyle market place was built and completed in July 2006. The place is appropriately called Paris Van Java or PVJ as it is locally known. Located in Sukajadi area in the north of the city, this lifestyle mall occupies an area of nearly 5,000 square meters. It has four floors, green walk gardens and more than 200 European-styled shops and cafes serving a great variety of delicious international and local cuisines, including a huge cineplex, a book store, an open-air stage, and a couple of international-chain supermarkets.
The photos I am posting today are a glimpse of the place that many consider as an oasis in this busy and crowded city. The top photo is the gate to this open-air resort lifestyle place. The second and third photos are some corners of the place. I will try to post more photos of this place at some later occasions.
17 comments:
This little square shops are gorgeous, and not impersonal at all. It is certainly pleasant to take out for a walk and go shopping under that covered streets.
We still have this kind of passageways that lead from one street to an other, and is protected from the rain or bad weather with glass iron frameworks.
They date from the end of the 19th century. They get a lot of style.
Interesting and beautiful place to visit.Thanks for sharing.
Looks and sounds awesome, Eki! And definitely a place which mall-loving Filipinos would enjoy immensely! ;D
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Looks like an excellent place to do shopping with a creative ambience.
Very interesting--both the look of the place and the fact that it was built. The butterflies are so nice.
Eki, it sounds like a great place to be..I am sure the food's good, anywhere there's makan place, I will be there too.
wow! i like this place.
The 1st shot is awesome! It really looks like a very nice area.
I like the idea of an oasis in abusy place. It really is a plaeasnt virtual journey with those butterflies.
This is really european looking place. :) But it is a very cool place to shop, hope they have reasonable prices.
Very interesting section of your city. I see your rainy weather is back, but it doesn't stop anyone from walking around....Thank you for your kind comments Eki..I really appreciate it... Michelle
I love the neon colors and night skyline. I learned more about your city and was not aware of the alternative name but it makes sense.
These shops are very nice indeed. I like the photo with the butterflies. You have been able to comunicate the pleasant atmosphere in this compound.Bravo!
This is an beautiful place to visit and shop. I think the shops in them probably offer anything you wanted to purchase.
I also like your photograph of these things. It brings me a little closer to knowing more about my world.I was not able to leave a comment on your other blog as the word verification part of the comment box didn't work. I had to remove the embed part of the comment process and revert back to the full page part to get comments on my blogs. The embed part does not work on many different kinds of browsers. And may not work on this one.
Brookville Ohio
These are such wonderful shots, each one so colorful and expressive. I really enjoyed this post and the history behind the images.
lovely!
Really like this place. Very interesting.
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