What fairly describe about East Java province, is coming from Surabaya. Beside, it is the official capital of the province, Surabaya is also the second largest city after Jakarta. By the population for about 3 millions people, Surabaya has become the Metropolis city with numbers of diversities among the people, cultures, habits and way of living. Moreover, Surabaya nowadays is already become the center of business, commerce, industry, and education in eastern Indonesia.
Surabaya is known as The City Of Heroes, due to the importance Battle of Surabaya against The Dutch Colony to support the Independence of Indonesia during Indonesia National Revolution
According to the etymology and peple’s believe, the word Surabaya is coming from the worn Sura (Suro in Javanese) and Baya (Boyo in Javanese). Suro is kind of shark and Boyo is crocodile in Javanese term. Those two creatures, according to local myth, fouth each other to get the tittle of "the strongest and most powerful animal" in the area according to a Jayabaya prophecy. This prophecy tells of a fight between a giant white shark and a giant white crocodile. Now the two animals are used as the citys logo, the two facing each other while circling, as depicted in a statue appropriately located near the entrance to the city zoo
Alternate derivations from Surabaya term is coming from the Javanese sura ing baya, which means"bravely facing danger"; or from the use of surya to refer to the sun. Some people consider this Jayabaya prophecy as a great war between Surabaya native people and invaders in 1945, while another story is about two heroes that fought each other in order to be the king of the city. The two heroes were Sura and Baya.
Surabaya is a main seaport and commercial center in the eastern region of Indonesia, and now become one of thelargest cities in Southeast Asia. The areas surrounding Surabaya include Lamongan to the northwest, Gresik to the west, Bangkalan to the northeast, Sidoarjo to the south, and Mojokerto and Jombang to the southwest. Gresik, Bangkalan, Mojokerto, Surabaya, Sidoarjo and Lamongan as an area is called as Gerbang Kertosusila.
As the provincial capital, Surabaya is also home to many offices and business centers. Surabayas economy is also influenced by the recent growth in foreign industries and the completion of the Suramadu Bridge. Surabaya is currently in the process of building high rise skyscrapers such as apartments, condominiums, malls and plazas, and hotels as a way of attracting foreign people to the city.
As a metropolitan city, Surabay is multy-ethnic city, where there are numbers of ethnics and tribe inside like: Javanese, Batak, Sunda, Maduranese, Balinese, Bugis and many more. There are also foreign nationalities include Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, Arab and European.
In everyday speaking, most inhabitants speak in Javanese with Suroboyoan dialect. This dialect is quite different with normal Javanese, especially from Central Java like Surakarta or Yogyakarta. Suroboyoan dialec is being higher in intonation and sometimes considered as harsh and high tempered.
Although, Surabaya is become so much influenced by the western culture and tradition from other tribes, but the originality is still exist and become the occasional events during some celebration like wayang, ludrug, remo dance, and some more particular Javanese culture.
Surabaya is hot, and become hotter by everything that live and exist inside the town. The people. The culture. The idea and way of life. Everything is in.